Thomas Haynes visits Finnair Flight Academy in Helsinki to learn more about how the airline trains its pilots to operate safely in some of the harshest flying conditions

For most airlines, especially those that are based in colder climates, winter is a season which brings with it a myriad of challenges. Ice, runway contamination and adverse weather conditions are just a few of the hazards that must be mitigated to ensure safe operations can be achieved. For Finnair, winter flying has become something of a ‘specialist subject’.

Finland certainly experiences its fair share of cold weather and endures a winter which lasts up to 200 days per year in northern parts of the country. According to the Finnish Meteorological Society, the season usually begins mid-October in Lapland and during November in the rest of Finland, though not until December in the southwestern archipelago. Spring begins in reverse with the most southern regions thawing in early April, while the northern reaches of the country don’t begin to see spring until early May.

Training

Pilot training forms a key component to tackling the hazards of winter flying and for Finnair, its Flight Academy is at the forefront of this by imparting its expertise in cold weather operations not only to its own pilots, but also those of its customer airlines for whom it provides training capacity. 

Matti Keskinarkaus, head of training at Finnair said one of the main characteristics of the organisation is that all its instructors are line experienced: “They actually work in line operations all the time, so when we’re talking about winter skills and knowledge, that’s how they bring it to the training environment.”

The application of line experienced instructors stretches to include type rating courses, meaning that pilots who join the flag carrier are immersed in real-life experiences from the very beginning.