The national flag carrier Finnair on Wednesday said that some individual flight cancellations may still occur until the full A321 fleet is back in use by end of this month. To support its passengers' travel plans, Finnair has leased two aircraft with crew to operate part of its network, said the airline in a press release. Passengers may also experience overbookings or changes in the operating airline. Finnair will contact affected passengers directly if there are any changes to their flights. The airline is replacing about 1,700 seat covers in eight A321 aircraft, and six of the planes will be back in service within a week. All eight aircraft are expected to be back in operation by the end of the month. Finnair temporarily suspended operations of these aircraft on 13 October, after having been informed by the manufacturer of the original seat covers that the impact of washing on the fire protection of the seat covers had not been verified in the required manner. The affected seat covers were manufactured by Finnair partner, based on specifications provided by the original seat manufacturer. The covers have been washed in accordance with the information received from the original seat manufacturer. As a result of the situation, Finnair has had to cancel about 70 flights since 13 October, affecting the travel plans of around 11,000 passengers. “We are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption this has caused to our customers. The safe operation of our flights is the foundation of everything we do. Once we received information that the impact of washing on the fire protection of the seat covers had not been verified in the required manner, it was clear that the aircraft had to remain on the ground until the issue was resolved,” said Pekka Korhonen, Senior Vice-President Technical Operations of Finnair. New seat covers are now being installed to allow the aircraft to return to service. The first aircraft has already resumed operations. Finnair still has been suffering from the seat cover cleaning issue and failed to restore normalcy in its flight operation. It cancelled 20 flights on October 13, 20 flights on October 14andeights more flights on October 15.