Finnair ups frequencies on Asian routes
January 11, 2011 by Rapeepat Mantanarat
Filed under News
BANGKOK, 11 January 2011 – Finnair will embark on expansion in Asia, this year, with a new non-stop service from Helsinki to Singapore plus frequency increases on several key routes between Europe and Asia.
Two A340s will join the fleet specifically to add a capacity on routes to Asia.
No changes are planned for Bangkok, the airline’s oldest station in Asia dating back to charter flights in the 70s. Today, the airline operates twice daily services during the winter season, but scales back to a single daily service during the summer timetable.
Finnair will start a daily Helsinki-Singapore service 30 May using an Airbus A340-300 (49 business seats and 227, economy). Singapore was once an extension from Bangkok, but the carrier dropped the Bangkok-Singapore sector in 2007 due to aggressive competition from low-cost airlines.
The Singapore flight will predominantly cater to business travellers visiting ASEAN and connecting to services to Australia. In contrast, Bangkok enjoys a mix of leisure and business traffic, strong enough to sustain two daily services during the peak tourist season November through to March.
In June, Finnair will also increase flights to Hong Kong from seven to 12 a week.
Effective 1 January, Finnair lifted Osaka services from five to six a week, followed by Delhi, 6 January, up from six to daily and back in December, it increased Seoul up from three to six a week and Nagoya from three to five.
From the summer schedule, starting 27 March, Finnair will fly daily to Seoul, Nagoya and Osaka. The airline also serves three other Asian cities Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo, all on a daily basis.
In addition, Finnair recently launched a Saver Promotion for business and economy class ex-Bangkok to its European destinations.
An economy class promotional fare is Bt16,500 per person. If two people travel together (GV2), the joint fare is Bt30,000. Business-class fare is Bt74,000 for one and Bt145,000 for two. These fares are exclusive of taxes and surcharges (around Bt10,000 depending on destinations).
The selling period will end 28 February, while travel is valid between 1 February and 20 June (ticket has one-month validity).
