Finnair has confirmed that from March 9, the airline will fly to Tokyo Narita airport four times per week from Helsinki.
Avoiding Russian airspace, the flight time will be approximately 13 hours.
“Japan is one of our most important markets, and we want to continue offering safe and reliable connections between Helsinki and Tokyo also in this situation,” said Ole Orvér, Chief Commercial Officer, Finnair. “Japan is also an important cargo market, and air connections are needed to keep cargo moving.”
Finnair will operate the Helsinki - Tokyo Narita route four times per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Flights are scheduled to depart from Helsinki at 17:30.
The Tokyo - Helsinki will be operated on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays with flights timed to depart at 22:40.
The airline continues to fly from Helsinki to Bangkok, Delhi, Phuket and Singapore, with a longer routing that avoids Russian airspace.
Finnair also flies to Bangkok and Phuket from Stockholm Arlanda.
“We continue to evaluate possible alternative routings for our flights to China and South Korea and will communicate on these as soon as the plans are finalized,” Orvér said.
In case of flight cancellation, customers can change their travel times, accept an alternative flight, or apply for a full refund for the unused ticket.
© Travel News Asia
7 Comments
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interuni321
I don't like the look of that southern route I'm afraid, currently a bit of a mess down there, that's when accidents happen. I'd rather fly the Alaska/Greenland route that JAL seems to be doing. The Russians won't deliberately shoot down an airliner. All that said I'm not leaving Japan while there's potential for more of covid issues, never mind potentially WWIII.
theResident
JAL are flying to/from London up through Alaska, down through Greenland and Iceland the last few day. The timing is not much different to the European routes on the Southern Route mentioned. Crew time limits make the southern route too long for London, and the Alaskan Route make too long for Frankfurt. See you point @Desert Tortoise bit I think you'll find the 'shortest' alternative that you mention would taverse airspace that if not 'owned' bu, is controlled Russian ATC
Desert Tortoise
Curious routing. Why not go over the pole, thread the Bering Strait and fly down south along the Pacific well offshore of the Russian Far East to Japan? I would be surprised if the US objected to flying over Alaska but it isn't really necessary. I am looking at our boys globe and that seems the obvious shortest route.
theResident
Assuming you are Russian- then Emirates will be one of your only choices left (and probably nor for long soon) anyway.
There is some wild routing going on- @Taki Mata - You seen JAL's London routings? That is very retro cold war, without the Anchorage stopover.
Mat
Four flights per week counts as "Finnair to resume Helsinki-Tokyo flights on March 9"
It used to be three flights per day.