Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Finnair focusing on Far East routes

Air carrier from Finland has found out that specializing in particular routes can be a way to get through the difficult time for the airline industry.

Finnair, whose planes fly to Helsinki from Warsaw and Kraków, has launched its via.Helsinki campaign. The carrier promotes Helsinki-Vantaa Airport as a gateway connecting Europe to Asia.
"We offer the shortest routes and short transfer times," said Jukka Hienonen, president and CEO of Finnair during his recent visit to Warsaw. He underscored that a passenger wishing to fly from Warsaw to Shanghai with no direct connection, would benefit most from choosing a flight via Helsinki. "The travel time is two hours shorter than traveling through Frankfurt with our main competitor on the Far East routes - Lufthansa," said Hienonen. Finland's airliner will soon launch a spa center for transfering passengers with a sauna overlooking the Helsinki-Vantaa runway.


"It is a tough survival game in aviation these days," said Jukka Hienonen, forecasting a lot of bankruptcies and consolidations in the industry in Europe. One of the recipes for survival is focusing on particular service. Finnair is also in the process of exchanging its fleet to modern, fuel-efficient jets, and is constantly monitoring the capacity to adjust the schedules immediately, when needed.

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