Finnair has been rapidly expanding its routes to Asia, exploiting its global position on what it calls the Great Circle Route, just south of the Arctic Circle, giving significantly shorter flight times to the Far East. This winter, the Finnish carrier is spreading its wings still farther and plans for 2007 look even more aggressive. 

October 30 saw the launch of a route from Helsinki to Delhi, which with a flight time of 6hr 30min provides the quickest service to India from Northern Europe. A further highlight of the winter timetable is the doubling of flights to Tokyo to four a week. The carrier already flies to Osaka and Nagoya, twice daily to Bangkok and also serves Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Singapore, with Kuala Lumpur being added to the network in the spring. 

The Delhi route is Finnair’s 10th Asian destination. It is small wonder the airline has such a love affair with the East: the region generates one-third of its revenue, with average load factors of 80% and heavy demand for Business Class.

Increasing chunks of Northern European business are located in Delhi, a sector only likely to expand. Says Finnair's deputy CEO Henrik Arle: “India is a growing economic powerhouse with the gross national product booming at a rate of nearly 8% per year. Business and leisure travel are increasing by double-digit percentage figures annually.” 

The boost in flights to Tokyo means Finnair will be flying to Japan almost twice a day, in addition to six services a week to Beijing and Shanghai, and three to both Hong Kong and Guangzhou. “Over the past two years, we’ve  increased our connections with China,” says Hetta Huittinenen, Finnair’s communications manager. "We’re constantly looking at alternative Chinese destinations and there's no doubt we'll be launching new routes soon. We’ve expanded our long-haul fleet, acquiring nine Airbus A350s and three A340s. 

“We’re the third-largest European airline operating to mainland China (after Lufthansa and Air France). It makes more sense for passengers in Northern Germany and Sweden to fly from Helsinki than to fly backwards and then retrace their steps with our competitors.” 

SAS is undoubtedly Finnair’s stiffest opposition, but following a massive advertising drive concentrated in Gothenburg last spring, the Finnish airline has made huge gains in the Swedish market. What's more, according to the Association of European Airlines, Finnair is one of Europe's top performing carriers in terms of punctuality. In the third quarter of 2006, 77% of its long-haul arrivals and 70% of departures were on time, compared to 67% and 61% respectively for rival SAS. 

Gdansk is to become Finnair’s third destination in Poland, supplementing services to Warsaw and Cracow. From April 2007, it will fly four times a week to the Baltic port using Embraer 170 jets. “The new route serves both Finnish and Polish travellers,” says Finnair’s sales director Juhani Nuoramo. “The flights offer good connections with our Asian and
New York arrivals and departures.” 

Last summer, Finnair doubled its flights to Poland with the launch of the Cracow service and added frequencies to  Warsaw. In response to customer demand, the former one-class service was upgraded to two classes in November.

In May 2006, Finnair completed the installation of lie-flat beds across its long-haul fleet. The airline flies to over 50  international destinations, and to 15 cities in Finland.