Proud of Finnair

Petri Tikkanen has one of the most reassuring voices I have ever heard. It's the kind of voice that you would choose to read you a bedtime story if you were a small child.

But when I first heard Petri's voice, he wasn't reading me a story... he was doing the next best thing.  He was telling me about the flight I was just about to take, as he was the man about to fly the plane.

Having been forced to take several flights over the past few weeks, and more than once endured the horrors of Ryanair (don't do it...however tempted you may be), this week I travelled with Finnair and was exceptionally glad that I did.

Captain Petri Tikkanen

January in Finland means that there is inevitably snow on the runway. The difference with the UK, however, is that the entire country does not grind to a halt. Roads remain open, schools are attended and aeroplanes take off just like they always have. No-one panics, no-one pretends to be in shock that there is snow in winter, and none of the flights are cancelled because of "the weather". The Finns just get on with it.

Of course it's not as simple as that. Even though our flight was ready to leave on time, there was a delay anyway because of problems at the Manchester end. You guessed it. "The weather". Oh dear, oh dear, when will we ever learn?

In any event, having heard Petri Tikkanen's calm and friendly explanation about the delay, passengers were then invited to the cockpit to have a look round. Petri and his co-pilot Juha-Matti Sukanen took the time to show us the controls and chat to us about life as an airline pilot, a career which both of them seem to thoroughly enjoy despite the challenges and awkward hours involved. They also turned what could have been an annoying delay into a really enjoyable hour and once again proved that Finnair is hard to beat as an airline which goes out of its way to look after its passengers.

Juha-Matti Sukanen

I asked Juha-Matti if he had always known that he wanted to be a pilot, and he said that he decided on it as soon as he had changed his mind about driving a digger! I said I would let my sons Luca (4) and Niko (3) know, as they both still seem to be at the digger stage at the moment. maybe this could be a new career option for both of them. (What is it about men that makes them want to drive diggers?)

Anyway, thank you to both pilots and the crew for a very interesting tour of the cockpit, an extremely pleasant flight and for once again showing us Finns how proud we should be of our national airline. And Petri, if you are ever looking for a change of career, I can think of a thousand ways you can put that reassuring voice of yours to very good use!