Local rights for Hong Kong - Bangkok vv. traffic for Finnair

Finnair, the national carrier of Finland, will start a new route between Hong Kong and Helsinki in February 2002. The new route will be operated via Bangkok three times a week. Finnair has also acquired local traffic rights between Hong Kong and Bangkok vv.

Operation days from Hong Kong will be Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday with departure at 21:50 and from Helsinki on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with departure at 23:40. The schedule is planned so that it gives excellent connections to destinations in Northern Europe.

Arrival in Helsinki gateway (The Best Airport in the Europe 2001) will be at 7:00, which gives excellent connections to all the Scandinavian, Baltic and North European destinations.

Finnair strategy is to grow in the Far East by opening new destinations and increasing frequencies to the current destinations. At the moment Finnair operates three times a week to Beijing, twice a week to Tokyo and four times a week to Bangkok / Singapore. One additional frequency will be added to Beijing in February 2002.

Finnair's daily service between Bangkok and Northern Europe can be considered to complement the oneworld operators Cathay Pacific and Qantas. The Finnair operation will provide operators belonging to the oneworld alliance with excellent connections from South-East Asia to Europe. Finnair operates from Helsinki to 28 European cities. Finnair´s co-operation with Hong Kong based Dragon Air also provides passengers from Southern China with an excellent opportunity to travel to Europe.