What is the main objective of Finnair's strategy?
The key words of our strategy are Sustainable, Profitable Growth. This conveys a long-term outlook and financial responsibility. Only a financially strong company can fulfil its responsibilities in the social and environmental spheres as well.

How would you crystallise Finnair's corporate social responsibility?
I view corporate social responsibility as the sum of fundamental attitudes and values. It is our way of working. Corporate social responsibility must lie very close to the heart of business operations; it cannot meander all over the place.

Corporate social responsibility is built on three pillars, namely financial responsibility, environmental responsibility and responsibility to the community at large. This is the unifying factor that connects everything to everything else. Corporate social responsibility is not a fruit cake from which you can pluck out the best bits, saying this is important and forgetting about the rest.

Finnair has been an integral part of Finnish society for more than 80 years. Does that entail a special responsibility?
Through its entire existence, Finnair has won a reputation for being a quality act. We have operated very responsibly through all these decades. We want to belong among the best, qualitatively, accepting our responsibilities and acting as a good example.

Our long history is not in itself any guarantee of future success, although our bank of experience and know-how will surely help. We have to be able to adapt to new situations, to a new age. We are, moreover, permanently living in a new era of lower fares.

I consider us genuinely to be an important part of the competitiveness of Finnish society, and we provide services that are vital for business life. A thriving, successful Finland is in Finnair's interests.

Conditions have been exceptionally difficult for airlines in recent years. How can you maintain a sense of responsibility also when times are hard?
Taking the industry as a whole, even the best companies have not been very profitable. Airlines have been unable to achieve a healthy level of profitability. This situation is not sustainable.

In recent years, a large number of employees in the industry have lost their jobs. New companies have come into the market with a clean slate and have been more competitive. We have to dismantle the structures of the past if we intend to fulfil our responsibility for the company's future. This process of change will be difficult.

The foundation for everything is financial responsibility, otherwise we cannot deliver on environmental responsibility or social responsibility. To ensure a viable, healthy company, we have to make structural decisions in respect of costs. This constitutes a sense of responsibility for the future and for the company as a whole.

In what direction will Finnair's corporate social responsibility develop in future?
We will endeavour through anticipatory measures to avoid ending up in a cul-de-sac. Finnair operations will be genuinely long term and responsible. We are coming generally to culmination points where stronger global steps will be inevitable. In Finnair, we want to keep our tools at a high level of quality, so that we do not generate noise or burn fuel unnecessarily.

My vision is that the environment of free competition will highlight the significance and understanding of financial responsibility. We are speaking here about sound finances, not about huge profits.

Another factor which will probably by emphasised is people's wellbeing and an understanding of softer issues. Motivation and wellbeing in work promote productivity.