Monday saw Finnair commence its new non-stop daily flights between Helsinki and Singapore.
The route’s launch makes Singapore the 10th Asian destination available non-stop from Helsinki via Finland’s national carrier. The company boasts that the new route provides the quickest connections between the Asian city-state and northern Europe. In a statement, it added that those utilising the route can then make connections in Singapore via a number of codeshare partners to Australia, Malaysia and other destinations in the Southeast Asian region.
Juha-Pekka Pystynen, director of Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport, said, “The new route to Singapore gives splendid support to Helsinki Airport’s position as the leading long haul hub in Northern Europe.”
Meanwhile, the carrier’s CEO, Mika Vehvilainen, said, “The Singapore route will strongly support our core strategy as well as serving our main target group of customers travelling between Asia and Europe on business.” He also flaunted the company’s success in its efforts to target global business travellers: “Finnair’s Asian strategy has worked extremely well,” he said.
The airline is utilising one of its Airbus A340s for the route, though competing European carriers such as Lufthansa are using the newer and larger Airbus A380 in the ongoing battle to win over intercontinental business and premium class travellers.