Finnair launches new Guangzhou Route

Finnair's first non-stop flight to Guangzhou departs from Helsinki-Vantaa airport on Sunday September 4 at 17.00.

Finnair will be flying to the ultra-modern new airport which opened earlier last year in Guangzhou. The airport is the first one in China to include a specially designated transit area for connecting passengers. The airport also provides excellent onward connections to the rest of mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao.

Departures are on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, with return flights from Guangzhou on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Flight time is about ten hours.

"Finnair has purposefully concentrated on Asia in its intercontinental traffic since 2000," says Henrik Arle, Executive Vice President and COO, Scheduled Pasenger Traffic. "Guangzhou is already the fourth Chinese destination for Finnair, along with Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. We shall also be opening a new route to Nagoya in Japan in spring 2006."

The airline's expansive network offers competitive connections for both Asian and European customers through Helsinki-Vantaa airport, at which changeover times can be as short as 35 minutes.

In addition to the extension of the route network, Business Class cabins on Finnair's Boeing MD-11 aircraft serving inter-continental destinations are also being renewed with the installation of new lie-flat bed seating. The installation is taking place over the coming winter and all Boeing MD-11 Business Class cabins will carry the seats by May 2006.

As of next spring, Finnair will fly 140 inter-continental flights every month on seven Boeing MD-11s to Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok and New York.

Guangzhou is one of China's most important economic powerhouses, located close to the mouth of the Pearl River about 200 kilometres from Hong Kong. The city's population is about ten million. The city is in the province of Guangdong, through which a third of China's exports pass. It is part of the Pearl Delta economic and cultural triangle also including Hong Kong and Macao, home to about 40 million people. The area is one of the fastest growing areas of industrial production in the world.

Guangzhou is an historically significant city and retains a truly authentic tradition Chinese atmosphere. It also has 2,000 year history of foreign trade and influence. The first recorded Finnish visit was by the Reinius brothers, born in the Finnish community of Laihia, who went to Guangzhou on behalf of the Swedish East India Company in 1745-7. Their journey from Gothenburg in Sweden took over a year to complete.

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