From dreaming to achieving – five inspirational Finnair journeys in aviation

We currently have about 3,100* women working at Finnair, who all have their journeys and personal achievements. Today, we share the stories of five Finnair women, along with their best lessons and tips for young women dreaming of a career in aviation.

Riina Palanne, VP Business Control

Riina started at Finnair on Valentine's Day 2017. She had lived and worked abroad for several years, and upon returning to Finland, she was yearning for something particularly “Finnish” in her life. An open position at Finnair matched Riina's wishes and skills, and she also fell in love with Finnair's sense of community, fast pace, and the opportunity to constantly learn something new. After eight years, these are still the same things that make her happy at her job.

At Finnair, Riina leads the Business Control team, whose main task is to produce financial information that helps Finnair and its various units make the best possible decisions. Riina says that the team is quite female-dominated, and Riina is proud to be able to contribute to promoting equality and supporting women’s advancement in their careers. “I'm proud of my amazing team daily and can only admire their professionalism. My team members have a magical ability to translate real-world events and issues into financial figures, and vice versa,” Riina says.

For her 15-year-old self, she would tell to be brave. “And I couldn’t resist the temptation to remind my teenage self to wear a hat in the winter and sunscreen in the summer,” Riina adds. Riina thanks the women at Finnair for all the support, lessons learned and memorable moments during her career.

Kecia Grigoriew, Senior Cabin Crew Member

Kecia works at Finnair in two different roles: as a Cabin Crew Member on board, and as a First Aid Instructor at Finnair Flight Academy. “Cabin crew members play an important role not only in ensuring flight safety but also in mastering first aid skills – you never know when quick and competent action can save a passenger’s life,” Kecia says. She is also part of the Test Lab group, who tests and develops new onboard procedures.

Kecia has worked in her double role for over seven years. When she began her journey at Finnair, she already had aviation experience from her previous roles with other airlines. At Finnair, she was intrigued by the diverse career opportunities, high service standards and safety culture, and the opportunity to work with colleagues from different cultures. Kecia is proud to be working among Finnair's professional cabin crew, ensuring that customers have a safe and comfortable journey, every single day.

Kecia would advise her 15-year-old self to be brave and believe in herself, as the best learning experiences often come from unexpected turns. She urges young girls who dream of a career in aviation to dream boldly – the sky is not the limit! “The women at Finnair have strength, professionalism, a sense of humour, great team spirit and perseverance. We have a wonderful work community where we support and encourage each other,” Kecia thanks.

Anne Hippi, OCC Duty Manager

Anne's career at Finnair began over 30 years ago at the airport check-in. The interesting and international environment attracted her and completely swept her away. Nowadays, she works as an Operations Control Center (OCC) Duty Manager, where she plays an important role in ensuring smooth operations of Finnair's flights. The OCC team consists of experts responsible for their own entities, for example, cabin and flight crew, passenger services, flight planning, and operational changes. Different situations arise every day, which the team then solves together.

In her daily work, Anne is proud to be able to help the team make good decisions and solve problems. During her career at Finnair, Anne has received a lot of training, including training on flight planning, which she’s able to utilise in her work daily. “I’m proud that I dared to apply for this position,” she says.

Anne would also encourage her 15-year-old self to be brave and follow her dreams without letting others influence her choices too much. For young women interested in aviation, Anne assures that the career is rewarding and interesting, and full of different opportunities. “Women have traditionally been underrepresented in our Operations Control, but this career path is definitely a great choice for women as well. The OCC always needs talented women to join its ranks,” Anne says.

Eeva Mattila, Engineer

Eeva was on holiday with her family in Madeira during her high school senior year and watched the planes take off by the sea. Interested in technology, Eeva immediately thought that it would be interesting to work with aircraft in the future. She was accepted to study Aeronautical Engineering at Aalto University, and while still a student, she got a glimpse behind the scenes of an airport through an internship at Finnair.

Eeva has worked for seven years as an Engineer at Finnair in the Cabin and Payload Engineering team. Her work consists of maintaining, developing and renewing cabins. The renewal work covers both very small renovations, such as installing a new soap bottle in the lavatory, and massive renovation projects covering the entire cabin.

The best part of the job is concretely seeing your own work in the cabin and positively influencing customers' travel experience. During her career at Finnair, Eeva has been involved in three major renewal projects: the ATR cabin upgrades in 2019, the A330 and A350 cabin revamp completed last summer, and now the ongoing Embraer cabin renewal, where she works as a project manager. Her favourite moment is when she finally gets to see the renewed cabin for the first time with all the different elements and details she spent months working on.

Eeva says that she was really shy when she was younger, which greatly defined her life. Thus, she’d like to encourage the 15-year-old Eeva to be braver and do things, even when they seem difficult and scary. Eeva reminds that there are many different jobs available in the field. “Here at Technical Services, there are mechanics, of course, but also us engineers, IT experts, logistics professionals and commercial people – people from different backgrounds with different strengths. There is certainly a spot for everyone, you just have to apply!”

Christine Rovelli, Chief Revenue Officer

As the Chief Revenue Officer, Christine leads teams responsible for Finnair’s fleet management, network, pricing, partnerships and alliances, and sustainability. When Christine joined Finnair nearly 13 years ago, she worked in a strategy role in the Resource Management team. Over the years, she has held various positions, from funding and capital markets transactions to strategy and treasury. In 2020, she became responsible for fleet management. Last autumn, Christine became the Chief Revenue Officer – coming full circle back to the division where she started with Finnair. She has also been part of the Finnair Executive Board since 2022, focusing on Strategy and Fleet Management.

In her current role, Christine says that she’s proud of the team she leads. She has the privilege to work with talented, creative and dedicated people across Finnair. “I personally have not accomplished much on my own here – it has always been working with a team that we have done those things of which I am most proud,” including, for example, getting Finnair through the pandemic, pivoting the strategy when the Russian airspace closed, and carving out a credible position in the industry regarding sustainability and energy transition topics.

Christine would remind her 15-year-old self to trust herself and reassure her that things will turn out fine. She says that during her lifetime, women’s career opportunities have drastically improved, and she urges women to continue to work towards expanding the opportunities for the generations to come. For those dreaming of a career within the airline industry, she says: “Know that you can make your mark pretty much anywhere; from cabin crew to finance, from engineering to strategy, from operations to marketing and more. If you like aviation, there is a place for you!”

*In February 2025, 3,102 Finnair employees were women, which is 55 percent of all Finnair employees. However, there are still relatively few women in Technical Services and Flight Operations, where we hope to see a more even gender distribution in the future. Women hold 37% of management positions at Finnair. In Finnair’s current Executive Board, there are three women and six men.