Finnair to offer full-flat seats for nine long-haul routes

Finnair’s (Helsinki) flights to Tokyo and New York will feature aircraft equipped with full-flat seats available in Business Class. Additionally, Finnair will offer full-flat seats on flights to Beijing beginning on May 1, 2014 and as of June 1, 2014 the full-flat allocation also extends to Hanoi, Hong Kong, Nagoya, Osaka and Shanghai. The new seats are a result of Finnair’s 29 million-euro program to retrofit most of its wide-body fleet of Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft.

The Zodiac Seats UK Vantage model seats, which are already in use on Finnair’s four newest Airbus A330s, are designed to provide a fully-flat bed measuring 79 inches in length and 23 inches in width. The fully adjustable seats also come with an individual reading light, adjustable head rest, mood lights and a range of inflight entertainment options.

After the full-flat retrofit program is complete, all of Finnair’s long-haul Airbus fleet will have full-flat seats in Business Class with the exception of three older aircraft. Due to maintenance or other technical reasons, designated full-flat routes may still be served by these other aircraft, which feature angled lie-flat seating in Business Class. These three aircraft will be the first to be removed from the fleet as next-generation Airbus A350 XWBs begin arriving in 2015.

Finnair currently operates 15 Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft in its wide-body fleet, serving a network of 15 long-haul destinations in Asia and North America. A further 11 Airbus A350 XWBs (with an option for 8 more) are due to arrive beginning in H2 2015, which will help the airline double its revenue from Asian destinations by 2020. Finnair will be the first European airline to fly with the state of the art A350.

Top Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A330-302X OH-LTO (msn 1013) arrives back at the Helsinki (HEL) hub.

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