FINNAIR DOES NOT ACCEPT ALITALIA SUBSIDIES


FINNAIR PLC		INVESTOR NEWS		25 April 2008

FINNAIR DOES NOT ACCEPT ALITALIA SUBSIDIES

Finnair does not approve of the 300 million euro loan given to Alitalia by the
Italian government. 

“The loan is yet another link in a chain of subsidies that has been going on
for years whereby the Italian government, against the EU's explicit
forbiddance, pumps money in to an ailing national airline,” states Finnair
President and CEO Jukka Hienonen. 

Finnair will demand that the EU commission take action on the subsidies
received by Alitalia. In 2004 Finnair, together with seven other European
airlines, also stated its concern to the EU commission about the subsidy
arrangement between Alitalia and the Italian government. In their joint letter
the airlines stated at the time that the subsidies have not led to the healthy
reorganization of Alitalia but have distorted competition. 

“It seems like nothing has changed. The subsidy is not an investment in the
company's future this time either, but will disappear into the gaping void of
the airline's inefficient cost structure. The artificial resuscitation of a
badly managed company distorts competition and the overcapacity that exists in
Europe cannot dissolve naturally,” Hienonen says. 

Finnair Plc
Communications
25.4.2008

Additional information: Kari Koli, VP Alliances & International Relations, 
tel. +358 40 555 8520