An airline forced to cancel 70 flights when it washed plane seats wrong says it has a fix — replacing 1,700 seat covers

• Finnair grounded eight jets after learning cleaning their seats with water may breach fire safety rules.
• Over 11,000 people’s travel plans were affected as the airline canceled 70 flights.
• Now it’s installing new seat covers and expects the jets to be back by the end of the month.

Finnair announced that it will replace around 1,700 seat covers, ending a saga that has disrupted over 11,000 people’s travel plans.

The Finnish flag carrier has canceled 70 flights since October 13 after learning it may have broken fire safety rules by cleaning plane seats with water.

A seat manufacturer told the airline it hadn’t been “properly verified” whether this might affect the covers’ fire protection.

As a result, it had to take eight of its 15 Airbus A321 jets out of service.

“Seats are typically washed every two years,” Finnair said in a statement shared on Wednesday. “Washing is a standard cleaning method for aircraft seats and is used across the rest of Finnair’s fleet.”

It has leased two aircraft, along with crews, to try to minimize the disruption.

New seat covers are being sourced from multiple suppliers, and one of the planes is already back in the skies, Finnair said.

It expects all eight jets to be back in operation by the end of the month.

However, it added that some flights may still be canceled until the whole fleet is operational again.

“We are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption this has caused to our customers. The safe operation of our flights is the foundation of everything we do,” said Pekka Korhonen, the airline’s senior vice president for technical operations.

“Once we received information that the impact of washing on the fire protection of the seat covers had not been verified in the required manner, it was clear that the aircraft had to remain on the ground until the issue was resolved,” he added.

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