The Finnish carrier specialising in the Europe/Asia segment will operate only 25%s in the winter 2019 schedule. This translates into an average of 75 flights per day instead of 350 flights last year during the same period.
Finnair has reduced its flight schedule for the winter season in line with customer demand, while planning to increase frequencies in spring 2021.
From 25 October 2020 to 31 March 2021, Finnair will serve 45 domestic and European destinations with reduced weekly frequencies on almost all routes.
Finnair's long-haul passenger flights will focus on Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Nanjing and BangkokThey also remain important freight destinations. Finnair is still not operating its flights to New York, India, Osaka or Singapore this winter.. However, these suspensions remain temporary.
On the Bangkok route, Finnair only carries passengers on return journey from Bangkok to Helsinki. This situation is due to government restrictions on international flights to Thailand. However, in January the airline plans to operate a weekly flight to Krabi and Phuket, with one frequency per week to each of these destinations.
Busan and Tokyo Haneda in spring 2021
Finnair has partially lifted the veil on its programme for next spring. The airline has decided not to resume its routes to Beijing Daxing, San Francisco, Sapporo and Xian next spring. However, it has confirmed its intention to launch flights to Busan in Korea and to Tokyo Haneda from March 2021.
According to Ole Orvér, Commercial Director, "Finnair continues to maintain essential air links for its Europe-Asia transfer passengers and for Finland. But the travel restrictions resulting from the pandemic continue to have a major impact on demand for air travel. It is therefore not possible to operate all the flights we planned in May for this winter".
Because of the fall in the number of customers, Finnair has also temporarily closed its business lounge in the Schengen area at Helsinki airport.. Finnair's lounges on the non-Schengen side have been closed since March.
Up-to-date flight information is available on Finnair.com and in travel agents' reservation systems. To offer its passengers greater travel security, the airline is authorising date changes for all journeys booked between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021.
New rules for entering Finland
French passengers have no problem transiting to Helsinki to catch another flight, although tourists from France cannot enter Finland because of the pandemic. Only business travellers are allowed into the country.
However, Finland is planning to ease this requirement from 23 November. From that date, French nationals will be able to enter the country with a covid-negative PCR test and if their stay does not exceed 72 hours.
