Airline increases capacity for popular destinations.
In line with its growth strategy, Finnair is adding two new European routes for its summer 2018 lineup including new non-stop flights to Lisbon and Stuttgart, as well as increasing capacity to Tokyo, Chicago, San Francisco, Bangkok and Delhi. Finnair will also be increasing capacity on several of its popular short-haul destinations during the summer 2018 season.
With over 100 European destinations, Finnair continues to expand its route network. As of June 1, Finnair will fly four weekly flights to Lisbon, Portugal. The flights, offering convenient connections for customers travelling to and from Asia, will be operated on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays with a newly WiFi-equipped Airbus aircraft. Finnair is also expanding its presence in the German market, opening a new daily route to Stuttgart, Germany. The new route, which opens April 23, will be Finnair’s sixth destination in Germany.
“Traffic between Europe and Asia continues to grow, and Finnair’s expanding network now offers more choice than ever before for our customers,” says Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer at Finnair. “We are also adding frequencies and capacity to popular Europeans destinations to serve the needs of our growing customer base both in Asia and Europe. Altogether, Finnair will be increasing its total capacity for next summer by 14 percent compared to the previous summer season, including the newly announced route to Nanjing.”
Finnair will add capacity to its popular long-haul destinations for the summer 2018 season:
- Finnair’s flight to Chicago will become daily with the addition of two new weekly frequencies from April to October
- Finnair’s three weekly flights to San Francisco will now have a longer operating season, flying from May 3 to September 27. All of Finnair’s flights to the USA are operated as a joint business with American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia
- Finnair will now fly double daily to Tokyo Narita with three new weekly frequencies. Together with Japan Airlines, Finnair will now offer three daily flights as part of its joint business with British Airways and Iberia
- Three new weekly frequencies will be added to the Bangkok route, serving 10 weekly frequencies during the summer season and 16 frequencies during the winter season
- An additional weekly frequency will be added to the Delhi route bringing it to four weekly frequencies during the summer season and six frequencies during the winter season
In addition, Finnair is increasing frequencies for several popular European destinations during the summer 2018 season:
- Seventeen new weekly frequencies to Tallinn, flying up to ten times daily
- An additional daily flight to Moscow, serving the Russian capital three times daily, and up to six times daily in co-operation with Aeroflot Russian Airlines. In addition, the three daily frequencies between Helsinki and St. Petersburg will now be flown with an Embraer jet aircraft.
- An additional daily frequency to Gdansk, serving the Polish Baltic Sea city with two daily flights
- Four additional weekly frequencies to Edinburgh
- Four additional frequencies to Barcelona between June and August, bringing it to fourteen weekly
- Three additional weekly frequencies to Madrid from June to October, bringing it to ten weekly frequencies
- Two additional weekly frequencies to Reykjavik, serving the Icelandic capital with multiple daily flights in co-operation with Icelandair
- One additional weekly frequency to Dublin, Dubrovnik, Malaga, Tel Aviv, Billund, Venice, Chania, Skiathos, Santorini, Rhodes, Heraklion, and Corfu
Finnair expands its growing network in China with new year-round route to Nanjing
Further strengthening its solid presence in China, Finnair announced the opening of a new year-round route between Helsinki and Nanjing, China. Located along Yangtse River, Nanjing is one of the four ancient capitals of China, and a vibrant center for culture and economy. With a population of over 8 million people, Nanjing is an important commercial hub and leisure destination with growing passenger and cargo demand.
Offering convenient transfers to Finnair’s network of over 100 destinations, the new route between Helsinki and Nanjing will be operated three times per week during the summer season and two times per week during the winter season.
The opening of the Nanjing route will increase Finnair’s growing footprint in Northeast Asia, with the Finnish carrier flying to seven destinations in Greater China during the 2018 summer season. Altogether, Finnair will fly 38 weekly flights to Greater China, flying daily flights to both Beijing and Shanghai, 4 weekly flights to both Chongqing and Guangzhou, three weekly flights to both Nanjing and Xi’an as well as 10 weekly flights to Hong Kong.
"We are very pleased to be expanding our growing network in China with the addition of Nanjing, our seventh destination in Greater China,” says Juha Jarvinen. “Finnair is fast becoming one of the biggest and most preferred European carriers operating between Europe and China. Next year will also mark a very important milestone in our history as we will celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Finnair’s inaugural flight to Beijing and China.”
Over the past decade, Finnair has placed a strong strategic focus on the Chinese market, opening direct routes to Chongqing, Xian and Guangzhou while enhancing the passenger experience with Chinese signature meals and mobile payment solutions onboard such as Alipay.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
