Tag Archives: Finnair

Finnair to fly to 77 destinations in winter 2022, as travel continues to recover

Finnair has updated its offering for winter 2022-2023, with a view to the Russian airspace closure. Finnair flies to ten Asian destinations, five US destinations, and 62 European destinations from its Helsinki hub during the coming winter. Finnair also has direct flights to the US and Thailand from Stockholm Arlanda.

Finnair’s US offering comprises daily flights to New York John F Kennedy airport from Helsinki, three weekly flights to Los Angeles and Miami, and four weekly flights to Dallas/Fort Worth, and Chicago O’Hare. From Stockholm Arlanda, Finnair offers three weekly direct flights to New York JFK, Los Angeles, and Miami. Finnair’s new Premium Economy travel class and the totally renewed long-haul cabins are available on all departures to and from New York for both Helsinki and Arlanda.

In Asia, Finnair continues to serve Delhi, Singapore, Seoul, and Tokyo Narita with daily flights connecting to Finnair’s extensive European network. Finnair also flies to its new destination Mumbai four days a week, to Hong Kong 7 times a week, and to Shanghai once a week. Holiday travellers to Thailand enjoy up to 14 weekly frequencies to Bangkok, three weekly frequencies to Phuket and two weekly frequencies to Krabi. Finnair flies to Bangkok and Phuket also from Stockholm Arlanda with two weekly frequencies to each destination. Due to the closure of Russian airspace, Finnair continues to suspend flights to Tokyo Haneda, Nagoya, Osaka and Sapporo for the winter season.

Finnair’s European offering comprises approximately 60 routes, including double dailies to and from most European capitals, serving the needs of both leisure and corporate travelers. Finnair offers smooth connections from Europe to its Asian and US network, as well as to the popular winter destinations Ivalo, Kittilä and Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland. Lapland offers authentic winter experiences from skiing to husky rides, and those wishing to catch the magic of the Northern Lights have plenty of opportunities for that.

Above Copyright Photo: Finnair Airbus A320-214 OH-LXL (msn 2146) ARN (Stefan Sjogren). Image: 957340.

Finnair aircraft slide show:

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Finnair commits to science-based targets initiative

Finnair has made this announcement:

As part of their commitment to sustainability, today Finnair has signed a letter of intent for a commitment to cooperate with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to bring CO2 emissions reduction targets in line with the UN Paris Climate Agreement. The UN Paris Climate Agreement aims to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels to combat the effects of climate change. Finnair aims to meet their target within the next two years.

“The climate challenges of flying need to be solved, so that the social and economic benefits of aviation can continue. Finnair has ambitious emissions reduction targets: by the end of 2025, we intend to halve the level of net emissions from 2019 and achieve carbon neutrality latest by the end of 2045. Commitment to the CO2 reduction path SBTi has developed for aviation aligns our targets with the Paris Climate Agreement,” said Eveliina Huurre, SVP Sustainability at Finnair.

Finnair uses an extensive toolkit to achieve emission reductions. The key tools reducing emissions include reducing the weight of aircraft, developing fuel-efficient flight methods, using sustainable fuels (SAF) and offsets, and engaging customers in reducing aviation emissions. Finnair is also actively exploring the possibilities of introducing new technologies into its operations.

Finnair commits to Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi), resumes flights to Riga

Finnair has signed a letter of intent for a commitment to cooperate with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to bring CO2 emissions reduction targets in line with the UN Paris Climate Agreement. Finnair sets the target within the next two years. The UN Paris Climate Agreement aims to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels to combat the effects of climate change.

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is a global body enabling businesses to set ambitious emissions reductions targets in line with the latest climate science. It is focused on accelerating companies and financial institutions across the world to halve emissions before 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions before 2050. The initiative is a collaboration between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and one of the We Mean Business Coalition commitments.

In other news, Finnair has resumed flights to Riga.

Yesterday marked 30 years since we resumed flights between Helsinki and Riga. The first flights to Riga started back in 1927. They were suspended due to the division of Europe during World War II and the post-war period. We currently have three daily flights to Riga. pic.twitter.com/hFlE2mt0DD

— Finnair (@Finnair) March 31, 2022

We continue supporting Ukrainians with a 95% discount on net fares for one-way tickets from Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk, Budapest and Prague to Helsinki. The discount is available with code Ukraine95 at https://t.co/906IMFcH8u until 14 April. Taxes and fees are added to ticket prices. pic.twitter.com/yEPqCefKEd

— Finnair (@Finnair) March 28, 2022

Finnair offers bus connections from Turku and Tampere to Helsinki Airport

Finnair has made this announcement:

Starting May 2, 2022, Finnair customers can travel between Turku and Helsinki and Tampere and Helsinki in Finland either by air or with a new kind of a bus connection that smoothly links to and from connecting flights from Helsinki Airport. Flights from/to Turku and Tampere are operated in early morning and late evening, allowing for smooth connections to and from Finnair’s network in Europe. During the daytime, Finnair offers a bus connection between Turku/Tampere and Helsinki Airport, and the bus ticket is combined to the flight reservation. The bus connections to/from Tampere are already on sale at finnair.com and the bus connections to/from Turku are available soon.

Combining different modes of transport will reduce the carbon footprint of these domestic routes. Multimodal travel chains are a part of the toolkit for reducing the CO2 footprint of aviation.

The bus connection is operated by Korsisaari bus company, with high-quality coaches that run 100% biodiesel. A one-way bus ride produces more than 1,000 kilograms less CO2 than a one-way flight on these routes. A smooth bus service with guaranteed flight connections is an option for reducing carbon footprint also for those customers, who would otherwise arrive the airport by car.

The bus route runs from Turku and Tampere airports to the bus stations at the city centers, and from there to Helsinki Airport and back. Those arriving at Helsinki Airport by bus have access to priority check-in and security check, enabling a quick transfer to a connecting flight. When changing from a flight to a bus connection at Helsinki Airport, customers will receive their checked baggage among the first ones. Finnair also guarantees connections in the event of traffic disruptions.

Meanwhile Finnair arrives in DFW:

Join us in giving a big Texas welcome to @Finnair! 👋🤠

Here's a look behind the scenes at the Shower of Affection that just greeted their arrival from Helsinki! 🇫🇮 pic.twitter.com/NkY258OvAm

— DFW Airport (@DFWAirport) March 27, 2022

Top Copyright Photo: Finnair Airbus A350-941 OH-LWI (msn 104) ARN (Stefan Sjogren). Image: 956924.

Finnair aircraft slide show:

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With airspace limitations, Finnair updates its flights for summer 2022

Finnair has updated its traffic program for summer 2022, as the closure of Russian airspace impacts Finnair’s Asian traffic. Finnair connects customers from its Helsinki hub to almost 70 European destinations, five North American destinations and eight Asian destinations, including new destination Mumbai, during the summer season 2022.

Some long-haul flights to Asia are cancelled due to Russian airspace closure, and consequently, frequencies in Finnair’s European network are adjusted to the resulting decrease in transferring customers. Finnair informs customers personally via email and text messages of changes to their flights. Customers can then either change the travel date or seek a refund, if they don’t want to use an alternative flight or if re-routing is not available.

Finnair’s Asian offering comprises of daily connections to Bangkok, Delhi, Singapore and Tokyo, three weekly flights to Seoul, two weekly flights to Hong Kong, one weekly frequency to Shanghai, and a new route to Mumbai, India, with three weekly frequencies.

Finnair suspends its other services to Japan for the summer 2022 season, due to the Russian airspace closure. Finnair was originally scheduled to serve Tokyo Narita and Haneda airports, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, and Fukuoka with altogether 40 weekly flights. Finnair is also postponing the start of its new Busan route.

On March 27, Finnair opens its new route to Dallas/Fort Worth, with four weekly flights and full connectivity to American Airline’s extensive network in the US. Another new route, Seattle, opens on June 1 with three weekly frequencies. Finnair also flies to New York JFK and to Chicago daily, and to Los Angeles three times a week. In addition, Finnair flies daily from Stockholm Arlanda to New York JFK and to Los Angeles four times a week.

In Europe, Finnair has a strong network almost 70 destinations, including Southern Europe leisure destinations such as Alicante, Chania, Lisbon, Malaga, Nice, Porto and Rhodes, all served with several weekly frequencies. Those seeking city experiences will enjoy the at least double daily connections Finnair offers to key European cities like Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Hamburg, London, Milan, Paris, Prague and Rome. In Scandinavia and the Baltics, Finnair offers multiple daily flights to the capital cities of Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius.

Top Copyright Photo: Finnair Airbus A350-941 OH-LWP (msn 392) LAX (Michael B. Ing). Image: 957112.

Finnair aircraft slide show:

Finnair aircraft photo gallery:

Finnair participates in oneworld SAF purchase agreement

Finnair made this announcement:

Members of the oneworld® Alliance plan to purchase up to 200 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel per year from Colorado-based renewable fuels producer Gevo, in the second such joint commitment by the global airline alliance in four months. Delivery of the fuel will commence from 2027, for a five year-term.

oneworld is the first global airline alliance to jointly commit to purchasing sustainable aviation fuel, and the new commitment is the second of its kind. In November 2021, oneworld announced a joint commitment to purchase more than 350 million gallons of blended sustainable aviation fuel from Aemetis for operations at San Francisco and Finnair was among the members in this commitment.

Finnair has set a long-term target to fly carbon neutral in 2045 and SAF is an important part of the toolkit for reaching this target. In March 2022, Finnair invited its customers to offset their flight emissions with a service that combines Sustainable Aviation Fuel and trusted climate projects. Finnair has flown individual flights with SAF blend already since 2011, and intends to increase the use of SAF in its flight operations.

Gevo’s sustainable aviation fuel is produced using inedible corn products that are processed to create ethanol that is then converted into sustainable aviation fuel. The sustainable aviation fuel is expected to be produced at three facilities under development in the Midwest of the United States.

Finnair has earlier partnered with Neste in Finland to increase to use of SAF and hence reduce carbon emissions of flying.

Finnair awards a “North Pole” certificate to its March 9 Helsinki-Tokyo passengers

Finnair made this announcement:

Since Russia closed its airspace on February 28, we have had to find alternative routes for our Asian flights. If your flight is operated over the North Pole, we will reward you with a Northern route diploma, which was also handed out back in the 1980s.

On March 9, 2022, flight AY073 from Helsinki to Tokyo Narita departed at 17:30 local time. However, instead of heading east, the flight headed towards the North Pole. With this flight, Finnair resumed its service to Tokyo Narita, skirting around Russian airspace that closed on 28 February.

Back in 1983, Finnair was the first airline to fly non-stop from Europe to Japan, flying over the North Pole – so operating in the polar region is not new to Finnair. But after a break of almost 30 years, there were a lot of details that needed to be carefully planned.

“Well-planned is half done”, says Aleksi Kuosmanen, Finnair A350 captain and deputy fleet chief, who was one of the four pilots on the flight. “Hours and hours of careful planning preceded this flight, to ensure a smooth and safe journey.”

By coincidence, Aleksi was not the first pilot in his family to fly over the North Pole. His father, Ismo Kuosmanen was in the Flight Deck as part of Finnair’s first ever non-stop flight over the North Pole in 1983. “Flying over the North Pole is probably a part of every long-haul pilot’s bucket list, and for me this flight had an extra personal significance.”

^{The flight deck crew for the 9 March HEL-NRT flight: Captain Kari Holopainen (commander of the flight), captain Tuomas Kukkonen, captain Aleksi Kuosmanen and co-pilot Juha-Pekka Nykänen.}

Planning every step

The planning of the new routing was started by Riku Kohvakka and his colleagues in Finnair flight planning. Riku and the flight planning teams plan flight routes for all of Finnair’s services, using Lufthansa Systems’ Lido flight planning system.

“I started by closing Russia from the system so that the system can calculate the next best routes from Helsinki to Tokyo,” Riku says. “While airspace closures for various reasons are a part of the everyday life of flight planners, this change – closing the entire Russian airspace – was so exceptional, that the system actually needed some manual guidance in the form of alternative waypoints, to get started and create an alternative routing.”

The northern route to Japan goes from Finland to Norway over Svalbard and the North Pole towards Alaska and then across the sea to Japan.

Riku’s team calculated the basic data for the new routings: the flight time, payload, fuel consumption and navigation fees to arrive at the cost of the flight for Finnair’s traffic planning’s use. There was also detailed planning required for the terrain en-route. “We worked with the flight operations engineer to check if escape procedures and charts need to be updated for the crew when flying over high terrain,” Riku explain.

One of the technical requirements involved alternative airports en-route, should the flight need to divert. “There were airports along the polar route – in Scandinavia, Northern Canada, Alaska and Northern Japan – that we had not used before, so a lot of information gathering was done to ensure our defined alternative airports are feasible for use,” says Aleksi.

A350 is well suited for the polar route

Flying the polar route also meant extending the so-called ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards) times, i.e. the maximum distance the route has to a suitable en-route alternate airport, if, for example, one aircraft engine experiences a technical fault.

“Our latest ten A350 aircraft are certified for ETOPS 300 minutes and adopting that required certain regulatory work and updating related maintenance procedures,” explains Aleksi.

Aleksi notes that the Airbus A350 is an excellent aircraft for the polar route. “The A350 is very resilient against cold air masses. For example, the fuel system is built in a way so that cold air masses rarely restrict our operations.”

Careful preparations also included documenting all the details that are needed for the pilots flying the new route. “We prepared a detailed route briefing document for the polar route, and my job on the first flight was to validate this document, so that all of our pilots know exactly what to expect,” Aleksi explains.

An uneventful flight, as planned

The planned flight time for the first HEL-NRT route was 12 hours 52 minutes, while the actual flight time was 12 hours 54 minutes – just two minutes longer. “With this kind of excellent flight planning, the actual flying was just like a regular day in the office,” says Aleksi.

Aleksi notes that actually flying over the North Pole was very uneventful. “The only noticeable difference was that the good old magnetic compass that we have in the flight deck went a bit haywire,” he says. The magnetic compass is for backup use only, and there are other navigation systems on the aircraft that maintain navigation accuracy also when flying over the North Pole.

Back in 1983, passengers on Finnair’s Tokyo flights received a certificate for flying over the North Pole. A certificate is available also now, along with some cute Moomin stickers.

Finnair continues its journey towards carbon neutrality and invites customers to offset their flight emissions

Starting on March 16, 2022, Finnair invites its customers to offset their flight emissions with a service that combines Sustainable Aviation Fuel and trusted climate projects.

Through the service, a platform powered by Chooose, Finnair customers can calculate their flight’s emissions and seamlessly offset their journey by choosing a mix of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and certified offset projects. The pricing varies depending on how the contribution is shared between the two.

The high price and limited availability of sustainable aviation fuels still present challenges for increasing its usage in commercial aviation, and thus stimulating demand and supply is important to drive down the price of SAF and to increase its availability. Meanwhile, offsets continue to be central in reaching carbon neutrality in aviation, and trustworthy offset projects with concrete and verifiable emission cuts are needed.

Finnair’s previous offsetting service was discontinued in March, 2020 due to Finnish legislation, which has since then been changed to allow companies to offer CO2 offsetting services to consumers.

Finnair targets to halve the emissions by the end of 2025 and reach carbon neutrality by the end of 2045, and is working systematically towards these targets The toolkit for achieving the CO2 reduction targets is the same as before the pandemic – with the focus on reducing own emissions through aircraft weight reduction, fuel-efficient flying and the use of sustainable aviation fuels and offsetting.

Finnair supports Ukrainians with a 95% discount on net fares for one-way tickets from Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk, Budapest and Prague to Helsinki. The discount is available with code Ukraine95 at https://t.co/WWKAxOEyod through March. Taxes and fees will be added to ticket prices. pic.twitter.com/iwpCw1a4rE

— Finnair (@Finnair) March 9, 2022

How Finnair is replanning its Asian flights to avoid Russian airspace

On Monday, February 28, 2022 Russia closed its airspace as a countermeasure to EU airspace closure. This meant many changes to Finnair’s Asian services, as most of Finnair’s flights between Europe and Asia have used the shortest, fastest, and most environmentally sound route over Russia.

In the new situation, our traffic planning and operations teams have worked hard to replan our Asian flights for the coming two months.

“We continue to fly to Bangkok, Delhi, Phuket, and Singapore, with a longer flight time,” says Perttu Jolma, who heads Finnair’s traffic planning team. “The flights to North-East Asia are tough ones to replan, as the detour around Russia makes the flights so much longer.”

Finnair flies to Tokyo Narita four times a week as of 9 March. The flight time is around 13 hours, instead of the normal 9.5-10 hours. We also continue our Shanghai flights once a week as of 10 March and Seoul flights three times a week as of 12 March, with a flight time of 12-14 hours depending on the direction.

Flights between Helsinki and Osaka and Hongkong have been canceled until the end of April, as flying them with a longer routing is not currently possible.

WHERE THE WINDS BLOW

When planning the detour around Russia, winds or jet streams play a key role.

“Depending on the winds, we fly either the southern or northern way around Russia to Japan,” Perttu explains.

The southern route to Japan goes roughly from Helsinki over the Baltics, Poland, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan to China, Korea and then to Japan. The northern route goes from Finland to Norway over Svalbard and the North pole towards Alaska and then across the sea to Japan. Back in 1983 Finnair was the first airline to fly non-stop from Europe to Japan, flying over the North Pole, so operating in the polar region is not new to Finnair.

The same southern route is used for flights to China and Korea. The return flight from Seoul to Helsinki may also take the northern route.

On the Shanghai route, the return flight to Helsinki is up to two hours longer than the flight from Helsinki to Shanghai, due to the winds along the way.

The southern route is used also for the Bangkok, Delhi, Singapore and Phuket flights. The route goes roughly from Helsinki to the Baltics, Poland, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and then across the North-East part of Iran to Pakistan and onwards to India and beyond.

The exact flight route for each flight is defined closer to the departure based on, for example, the weather conditions on the day.

CALCULATING EVERYTHING

There are a lot of calculations to be done when planning the detour around Russian airspace. The longer route means more fuel burn, changes to the number of crew and their working hours, and all of this impacts the costs.

“The longer flight time impacts the flights’ financials a great deal, increasing fuel costs, crew costs and navigation costs,” Perttu explains. “The impact of these is so great, that at this stage we are unfortunately not able to offer passenger connections to all of our Asian destinations. We of course continue to monitor the situation and hope to be able to return to all our markets as soon as possible.”

As many of Finnair’s customers have connecting flights, longer flight times between Europe and Asia also means replanning the new long-haul schedules so that connections to and from Finnair’s home hub Helsinki can be arranged. This is why Finnair’s Bangkok flight now has a new schedule to enable customers to connect to and from Helsinki even with the longer flight time.

“We also need to seek the required permits to fly the new route, and there may be areas that require special preparation such as high terrain or the polar region,” Perttu explains. “All of this is carefully planned with our flight operations team, as flight safety is always our number one priority.”

Finnair continues serving Shanghai and Seoul with strong cargo support, cancels flights to Osaka and Hong Kong until end of April

Finnair has continued to update its traffic program due to the closure of the Russian airspace. The further increased price of cargo currently enables continuing of passenger services to Finnair’s key Asian markets even with the longer flight times. Finnair now continues to serve Seoul and Shanghai from its Helsinki hub. At the same time, Finnair cancels flights to Osaka and Hong Kong until the end of April.

Starting this week, as of March 10, 2022 Finnair flies to Shanghai once a week on Thursdays, and as of March 12, 2022 to Seoul three times a week on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The flight routes avoid Russian airspace, and the flight time for the Shanghai and Seoul routes will be 12-14 hours, depending on the direction. Both routes go around the Russian airspace from the south, and the return flight from Seoul to Helsinki can also take the northern route.

Avoiding the Russian airspace on flights between Europe and Asia has considerable impacts on flight times, thus impacting fuel, personnel, and navigation costs.

Finnair announced earlier this week that it will continue to fly to Tokyo, going around the Russian airspace, with four weekly flights as of March 9, 2022. Finnair also continues to fly to Bangkok, Delhi, Phuket, and Singapore, with routes avoiding the Russian airspace.

Finnair informs customers personally via email and text messages of changes to their flights. Customers can then either change the travel date or seek a refund, if they don’t want to use an alternative flight or if re-routing is not available.