(TAN): Finnair will serve 45 domestic and European destinations with reduced weekly frequencies on almost all routes from October 25, 2020 to March 31, 2021.
The airline has trimmed its flight schedule for the winter season in line with customer demand and has planned to boost frequencies during spring 2021. From November 2020 to March 2021, Finnair has now been scheduled to operate approximately 75 flights per day, and it will continue to review its traffic program based on estimated demand, as the changing travel restrictions continue to impact demand for air travel.
Finnair’s long-haul flights will focus on Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Nanjing and Bangkok, which are also important cargo destinations. On the Bangkok route, it has been flying passengers only on the Bangkok to Helsinki leg. Finnair will also continue cargo-only flights to Singapore and New York.
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Ole Orvér, chief commercial officer of Finnair, said: “The pandemic situation and the related travel restrictions continue to have a heavy impact on demand for air travel, and thus it is not feasible to operate all the flights we in May planned for this winter.”
Due to the lower customer numbers, Finnair will temporarily close its lounge at the Schengen area of Helsinki Airport. Finnair’s lounges at the Non-Schengen side have been shut since March. It has offered flexible change of travel dates for all flights booked between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021.
Affected Finnair customers will be contacted directly by the airline and offered an alternative flight wherever possible. Customers can also opt for a full refund of the ticket if the new flight offered is not suitable.
Finnair has also updated its preliminary flight program for the summer season 2021, which starts on April 1, 2021.
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“We continue to follow the demand outlook and will be updating the summer 2021 traffic program accordingly in early 2021. We of course hope that travel restrictions and the pandemic situation will alleviate by then, so that we can increase our flight offering,” said Orvér.
Delayed from this year, Finnair has planned to open its new Busan route to South Korea in the summer of 2021. It has also been intending to start services to Tokyo Haneda Airport during the summer. However, flights to San Francisco in the United States, Xi’an and Beijing Daxing in China and Sapporo in Japan will remain suspended.
These latest updates to Finnair’s traffic have no effect on the company’s estimates of the financial result for 2020 presented in connection with its half-year report.
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