Daily Helsingin Sanomat writes that selling off Finnair isn't currently an active topic in Finland, as it would be political suicide. Nonetheless, the national carrier has been facing mounting troubles in recent years.

For example, over the past five years, Finnair has borrowed four times more money than the company itself is worth. This month alone, more than a hundred flights have been canceled due to a strike by the Finnish Aviation Union (IAU). At the end of March, the company estimated that these strikes would reduce the airline's profits by more than €40 million.

According to Estonian aviation expert and former Nordica executive Sven Kukemelk, Finnair's business model has been built around offering fast connections between Europe and Asia. Flights to Asia via Russia are no longer an option, however, meaning competitors can reach Asia faster. The company now has several long-haul jets sitting idle, and meanwhile, its short-haul planes are over 20 years old and in need of replacement.

Kukemelk acknowledged that the company has no easy options for moving forward, noting that right now, Finnair is basically breaking even.

"They can stay afloat with their current fleet, but since that fleet is aging by the year, they don't have the capital to expand or renew it," he explained. "To make an expansion like that happen, they'd need to find some way — either by scaling back or by finding a new opportunity to fly from Europe to Asia."

If Russian airspace remains closed, however, Finnair will need to make major cuts to its fleet, he added.

If the Finnish flag carrier does end up significantly scaling back its fleet, this would also impact Estonia's connections to the rest of the world, said Kukemelk.

"If that happens, the number of onward flights from Tallinn via Helsinki would definitely drop," he noted. "Right now, Helsinki is the most-used connecting destination from Tallinn — up to ten flights a day. In that case, there wouldn't be as many Tallinn-Helsinki flights either, since there wouldn't be as many connecting destinations."

He added that the company doesn't necessarily have to downsize; the Finnish government could inject more money into the company if it wanted to. The Finnish state currently owns just over half of Finnair, with the remainder listed on the stock exchange.

"The Finnish state could decide to buy up Finnair shares and thereby also increase share capital by, say, a few hundred million or a billion euros," Kukemelk explained. "I don't see Finland having a spare billion to delist Finnair and then invest in it right now, though — especially not while they're also raising their defense budget."

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