Most of the European and Asian companies on routes between the two continents are strongly affected by the closure of Ukrainian airspace and ban on overflights of Russian territory to aircraft from nearly forty countries.
The companies most affected include Finnair. For years, the Finnish company has been positioning itself as a the specialist for flights to Asia. Before the pandemic, the carrier offered flights to around twenty cities. It is true that Finnair benefited from one of the Europe's shortest journey times by flying over the far north of Russia...
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the carrier decided to cancel its flights to China, Japan and South Korea. until 6 March 2022. However, the airline will continue to serve Bangkok, Delhi, Phuket and Singapore from Helsinki, and certain routes from Stockholm Arlanda. Finnair finally resumed flights to Tokyo Narita on 9 March with a new itinerary that adds 3 hours overtime to the usual flight time.
Finnair operates four weekly flights to Tokyo in around 13 hours. " Japan is one of our most important markets, and we want to continue to offer safe and reliable connections between Helsinki and Tokyo, even in this situation." says Ole Orvér, Finnair's Commercial Director.
On 10 March, the airline resumed its weekly service to Shanghai from Helsinki. The flight takes place every Thursday. Seoul returns to Finnair's timetable on 12 March with three weekly flights. Both routes have a flight time of between 12 and 14 hours, depending on wind direction. However, Finnair is cancelling its flights to Osaka and Hong Kong until the end of April..
Elsewhere in Europe, Air France-KLM, British Airways and the Lufthansa group are still offering frequencies to Asia.
