Finnair adapts pilot training for daily GPS interference in Baltic

Finnair has adapted its pilot training and operations to deal with daily GPS interference in the Baltic region, a ‌growing challenge that is drawing interest from airlines elsewhere, CEO Turkka Kuusisto told Reuters on Thursday.

"Our pilots are first and foremost trained to operate in an airspace where we face GPS interference, ‌because that's a daily issue," Kuusisto told Reuters in an interview. European airlines operating near NATO's ‌eastern flank face growing security challenges as the war in Ukraine enters its fifth year. Finnair has stopped flying over Russia and Belarus, rerouting its flights and increasing exposure to a Baltic region that has become a ⁠hotspot ​for electronic warfare.

Interference across ⁠the Baltic region has intensified sharply this year. Poland's Communications Institute said in August that GPS and other satellite ⁠navigation signals along Poland's Baltic coast were disrupted on most days during the summer. In 2024, Finnair was ​forced to suspend flights to Tartu in eastern Estonia for about a month after ⁠GPS interference in the area prevented its aircraft from conducting safe approaches.

While modern aircraft can continue operating safely ⁠using multiple ​backup navigation systems, Kuusisto said the scale of interference had expanded markedly since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, especially over the Baltic Sea. "When I spoke with some of the ⁠CEOs who are not that active in Europe, they don't face it in North America or ⁠Australia," Kuusisto said. "They are ⁠to some extent a bit surprised that it is a daily burden, but when they learn that we can also operate and our ‌pilots have ‌been trained, they're actually quite interested."