Flying with pride – how Finnair celebrates all colours of the rainbow

Who we love or which gender we identify with are big building blocks of each of our lives. Imagine having to hide such important parts of yourself at work or feeling uncomfortable sharing them with your colleagues? 

Your workplace should be a safe space where you can flourish exactly as you are, which is why we are committed to promoting an organisation culture that supports diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) . 

“According to our employee engagement survey, one of our strengths is that everyone can be themselves,” says Kaisa Aalto-Luoto, Finnair’s Chief People Officer. “But there is still so much more we can do to be even better. This is a learning opportunity for all of us.” 

To put words into action also outside our organisation, we are one of the official Working with Pride partners of Helsinki Pride in 2024 . Helsinki Pride is Finland's largest and most influential human rights and culture event, which brings people together and makes room for all shades of the rainbow. 

“We are a proud supporter of Helsinki Pride, as their work is truly important for so many. Our participation in Helsinki Pride and raising awareness of the importance of DEI supports us as we continue our work in building an inclusive workplace,” Aalto-Luoto says. 

Building an inclusive working environment 

Within Finnair we continue raising awareness and implement initiatives to support inclusion. This year we have introduced our new gender-neutral language guidelines , and will launch soon training on DEI matters to all of our employees. We are also further developing our recruitment guidelines to support DEI and avoid unconscious bias in people selection. 

“Promoting diversity and inclusion is the right thing to do, but we believe that it also supports our business success. We strive to build work community of people with different backgrounds and experiences to bring together different views and improve our decision-making and overall performance,” Aalto-Luoto says. 

We also want our customers to feel welcome on our flights and when using our services.  For a long time, our pilots and pursers have been greeting our passengers with a simple hello instead of referring to ladies and gentlemen. But building an inclusive customer experience also extends to our website and booking service, which we aim to develop to be more inclusive and gender neutral. For example, it is currently not possible to choose other than male or female as gender option when booking a flight on our website, but our aim is to change this. 

Building an inclusive working environment and customer experience is a journey that we are travelling bit by bit and learning along the way. If you have an idea on how Finnair could pay more attention to all the colors of the rainbow, feel free to share your suggestions, for instance, through our social media channels  .