Finnair has opened applications for Cabin Crew Members based at Helsinki Airport, with a second listing specifically for Japanese-speaking candidates. The application window runs from 24 August to 6 September 2026, and successful candidates will train and start flying in 2027.
The recruitment journey starts entirely online. Candidates submit their resume via Finnair’s recruitment partner, Barona, and then complete an on-demand video interview. Shortlisted candidates are then invited to take part in a series of online assessments.
Candidates who are fortunate enough to be shortlisted after completing the online assessments will then be invited to an in-person assessment day. If you make the final cut, training courses will run through spring 2027. Read on for all the details about this recruitment drive.
Insight: The last few years haven’t been easy for Finnair. The closure of Russian airspace since 2022 hit the airline harder than almost any other carrier in Europe, adding hours onto its key Asian routes. And it couldn’t have come at a worse time, considering that it happened just after airspace across Asia was being reopened.
Thankfully, after a difficult few years, Finnair has been able to build a modified long-haul network which is starting to perform well. Reopening cabin crew recruitment shows a renewed sense of confidence for the future.
The Role and What You’ll Be Based
Finnair’s sole hub is at Helsinki Vantaa International Airport. As cabin crew for Finnair, you will fly a mix of domestic, short-haul, and long-haul routes out of Helsinki.
Just like at any other airline, standby assignments are an essential part of the job that can’t be avoided. If you’re on standby you need to be able to reach Helsinki Airport within an hour, which in practice means living in the Helsinki Metropolitan area (or, at least, stay in temporarily across standby duties).
Worth knowing: Finnair’s oneworld membership means the network connections go well beyond what the airline flies itself. For crew, that mostly shows up as more varied passenger mixes and a lot of transit customers on long-haul flights.
What’s the Package?
- Salary — basic monthly pay currently runs from around €1,800 gross for newer crew up to roughly €3,000 gross for those with long experience. On top of the basic salary, additionals (Sunday pay, night duty, and similar) typically add another 30–40%, plus daily allowances for flying.
- Training — 6 to 9 weeks, unpaid, with the exact length depending on whether you’ve flown as cabin crew before.
- Contract — full-time, permanent or fixed-term, at roughly 110 working hours a month once training is complete.
- Previous experience credit — if you’ve worked cabin crew before, up to 2 years of that experience counts toward your starting salary grade under the collective agreement.
- Union representation — pay and terms are agreed collectively, which is worth knowing if you’re used to a non-union contract elsewhere.
Worth knowing: Training is unpaid. Six to nine weeks with no salary is a real financial gap to plan for, and it’s one that catches people out if they assume training pay is standard across the industry. It isn’t everywhere, and it isn’t here. Worth budgeting for it properly before you commit to the process.
What Does Finnair Look For?
Previous cabin crew experience isn’t required, but you do need at least a year in hospitality or customer service. Beyond that, Finnair’s minimum requirements to become cabin crew include:
- Minimum age 18
- Secondary education (upper secondary or vocational)
- Fluent English; fluent Finnish is highly valued, and additional languages help
- Minimum height 160cm, with a reach of 218cm barefoot (test this yourself against a wall before applying — Finnair also checks it formally through Health Services before training)
- Ability to swim 40 metres
- Normal colour vision and hearing, with distance visual acuity of 0.7 or better in each eye, corrected or uncorrected
- Clean criminal record
- A valid EU, EEA or Swiss passport that allows free worldwide travel
- Eligibility to live and work permanently in Finland, and the ability to reach Helsinki Airport within an hour when on standby
Worth knowing: The passport requirement is the one that trips people up. This isn’t a general international hiring drive open to any nationality with the right to work in Finland; it specifically requires EU, EEA or Swiss citizenship, which rules out a chunk of the usual cabin crew applicant pool who might otherwise meet every other criterion.
Visible tattoos need to be fully covered when in uniform, either with clothing, make-up, or tattoo cover-up tape, and visible piercings other than earrings need to come out for the shift.
There’s also a two-part medical assessment run by Finnair Health Services, separate from the employer side of the process, covering both general fitness for irregular hours and night work and specific crew requirements. Certain chronic conditions, cardiovascular issues, sleep disorders and some mental health conditions can affect eligibility, so this isn’t a box-ticking formality.
No, you don’t actually have to speak Finnish to become Finnair cabin crew. Although speaking the native language is a definite advantage, fluent English is the minimum requirement.
How to Apply
- Apply online for either the general Cabin Crew Member listing or the Japanese-speaking listing, both based at Helsinki, before the deadline of 6 September 2026.
- Complete a video assignment, expected in September.
- Complete online assignments, also expected in September.
- Complete a medical survey, expected in September or October.
- Attend a Finnair assessment day, including interview and group exercises, expected October or November.
- Selections are expected in early November, with training courses starting gradually from early 2027 and running through spring.
Full attendance is required on-site for the entire training course, and around two months before your course starts you’ll get preparation instructions covering security clearance, a foreign criminal history declaration if you’ve lived outside Finland for six months or more in the last five years, the medical examination and drug test, and a uniform fitting. It’s worth starting to gather the paperwork for that now rather than waiting.
Apply for Cabin Crew Member, Helsinki Base
For more on getting through each stage of the process, check out our Ultimate Recruitment Guide and grab one of our free CV templates before you apply.
