Magnus Hannukainen, who looks after Finnair’s onboard catering and tax-free sales, speaks to Sara Turner
6.30am I usually get up and have breakfast, then drive my kids to school on the way to the office. I work in the car, on the phone. It’s a 30-minute journey, and you can do a lot – change meeting times, set up new ones and check how things are going.
9am Some of the guys are already in the office at 7am, but I don’t arrive until now. I’m not an early bird. My mum told me that the early worm gets eaten. The first thing I do when I arrive is go through my emails – I get a huge amount every day.
9.30am As business unit director, I have a lot of meetings. You have to be well prepared for them, otherwise you don’t get any results. They can be about any number of things: how to market goods, how to plan the shop, or about human resources – that’s a big part of the business.
I don’t usually lead from the desk. I talk to people or go to the place where the problem or opportunity is. That, I think, is wiser than starting an email rally that is going to continue for two weeks and still doesn’t produce a result at the end of it. I like it if people are actively doing things, and making mistakes is a part of that. By doing nothing, you make no mistakes, but you don’t achieve anything either.
A big part of the work is selecting our wines. I change the business class wines every six months – I choose one champagne, two whites, two reds, a port and a sweet. For this I put aside at least two days, with no meetings and no interruptions. I have been in the alcohol business since I was 19. I believe I have tasted about 25,000 wines, and I usually try between 1,000 and 1,500 different ones a year. I do it on my own and I do it blind, so I can really concentrate. Some of the labels are too famous – it’s pretty easy to buy wine just by looking at the labels. I also have to think about the customers – for long-haul flights, more than 55 per cent of our business is to Asia. I need to choose a wine that goes with Asian food and one that goes with Western food. I have no favourite, but life is too short to drink bad wine.
12pm If I eat lunch, I have it about now. It might be salad, but mostly I just drink coffee. There’s no time for a proper lunch. I’m also always checking emails on my phone.
12.30pm In the afternoon I might have a meeting about our in-flight duty-free – that is also a huge job. It’s not just about putting a catalogue in the seat pocket. You have to think about how much you can sell – the more there is, the more space it takes up on the plane, and the plane gets heavier and needs more fuel, so the costs go up. We also offer pre-ordering of about 500 items, where you buy it on the outward trip and it is waiting on your seat on the return journey. It’s nice to see what is selling and what is not, and change accordingly. People tend to go first for what’s new, and then what is on offer.
After, I might have a meeting about the new Finnair airport shop, which will open in February. It is larger than the current one and will offer a greater variety of alcohol, cosmetics and gifts. Or I may meet with our parent company to discuss the future of onboard catering. Every airline is thinking about what is served on board and what can be sold – we are currently looking at different concepts.
4.30pm Before going home, I often walk around the factory where we process all the onboard catering and duty-free. There is a lot to think about – we are operating about 20,000 flights per year where we are serving something. We make about 10,000 meals per day. From May it will be more, as we are starting flights to Singapore and increasing the number of services to Hong Kong. I might also have to go downtown for a meeting with a supplier who wants me to buy their wine or product.
5pm I finish work between now and 7pm, it varies. When I get home I help my kids with their homework, then perhaps work in the garden. In the summer months especially, as there are up to 19 hours of sunshine a day, I have to do something. You can’t go to bed before midnight.
Even after a busy day, it’s very seldom I just sit down and don’t think about anything. I enjoy it when it’s a tough day, otherwise I get bored. I like it when things are happening, when we have to do something, develop something. There is no ordinary day for me. n
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