Image: Heikki Saukkomaa / Lehtikuva

Finland’s national airline Finnair announced on Tuesday it is making further reductions and cancellations of its routes to European destinations in April.

The reductions are due to the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak has had on business as well as a decreased demand for tickets, according to the firm.

Finnair said it plans to decrease seat capacity by more than 20 percent by cancelling about 2,400 flights outright and using smaller aircraft, according to a company release issued on Tuesday.

Tuesday's announcement included which flights which the firm is either cancelling or reducing.

Finnair said it was outright cancelling flights to Bologna, Italy; Stuttgart, Germany; Split, Croatia; Umeå, Sweden; and Venice, Italy from 29 March to 30 April.

The firm is also cancelling all flights to the Finnish cities of Jyväskylä, Kajaani, Kokkola and Kemi between 1 and 30 April.

In addition to the cancelled and reduced capacity of routes, Finnair also has plans to cancel select flights "on some routes where load factors are very low due to the coronavirus situation."

The firm said it would notify ticketed customers about eventual cancellations.

"Customers can then either seek a full ticket refund or postpone their travel by contacting Finnair’s customer services," the company stated in the release.

On Monday, Finnair announced it was cancelling all flights to Rome, Italy between 12 March and 7 April and also noted it was relaxing its policy on making flight reservation changes, saying it would allow ticketed customers to change their travel dates without paying fees until 30 November if the bookings are made by 30 April at the latest, if there are available seats and other criteria.

However, Finnair noted that its relaxed ticket change policy does not apply to passengers who made reservations through tour operators like Finnair Holidays, Aurinkomatkat and others.