Finnair continues Shanghai, Seoul cargo support

Avoiding Russian airspace impacts flight times, thus impacting fuel, personnel, and navigation costs.

Credit: Airbus
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Credit: Airbus

Finnair, while updating its programme due to the closure of the Russian airspace, 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," according to an official statement.

"Starting this week, as of March 10, Finnair flies to Shanghai once a week on Thursdays, and as of March 12 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.

"We strive to offer our customers connections between Europe and Asia to the extent it is possible in this challenging situation," says Ole Orvér, Chief Commercial Officer, Finnair. "We understand how frustrating the situation is to our customers and are very sorry about the inconvenience and trouble the flight changes are causing them."

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

While available tonne kilometres dropped five percent to 415.80 million in January 2022 from 435.90 million in December 2021, revenue tonne kilometres dropped even sharply (18 percent) to 185.80 million from 225.60 million. Overall load factor thus dropped to 44.70 percent from 51.80 percent.

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