Finnair Confirms Fourth Weekly Flight to Beijing

Finnair will launch a fourth weekly flight frequency to Beijing as of February 11, 2002. The flights will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Departure and arrival times are unchanged, with departures from Helsinki at 19.35. Flights arrive at Beijing the following morning at 9.20.

Return flights from Beijing operate on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. This part of the timetable is also as before, with departures from Beijing at 12.20 and arrivals at Helsinki the same day at 15.05.

The flight time between Helsinki and Beijing is 7 hours and 45 minutes, which represents one of the fastest connections between Europe and China.

Helsinki's geographical location and Finnair's comprehensive network of flights to Scandinavia, the Baltic Region and Western Europe creates excellent gateway connection advantages for passengers travelling from China to Europe.

The addition of the fourth Beijing flight is part of Finnair's overall long haul strategy. Finnair is strengthening its operations in the Far East by adding flights to existing destinations and adding flights to new destinations in South-East Asia.

In addition to the increased Beijing service, a completely new service to Hong Kong will start in February 2002. Finnair will fly daily to Bangkok.

Flights to the Thai capital will continue to Hong Kong four times a week and to Singapore three times a week.

All Finnair's Far East traffic is served by MD11 aircraft. The interiors of these aircraft are being renewed as of autumn 2001, with Business Class cabins being expanded at the same time to 42 seats. The aircrafts' visual appearance will be changed, too, in line with the airline's unified, freshnew image and identity.