Finnair plans to start operating 30% of its network from July with flights to a number of key European and Asian cities.
The airline says that from 1 July it will begin serving major European cities including London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Frankfurt, as well as six domestic routes.
Finnair will also resume scheduled services to Nagoya, Osaka and Tokyo Narita in Japan, as well as to Singapore, Seoul, Bangkok and Beijing. Shanghai and Hong Kong flights will also begin, subject to government approval.
The carrier aims to resume flights to New York and Delhi in August, as well as Barcelona, Milan, Madrid, Rome and Warsaw. The long-haul routes will be operated using Airbus A350 aircraft.
“We expect aviation to recover gradually, starting in July,” says Finnair chief commercial officer Ole Orver. “Our intention is to operate approximately 30% of our normal amount of flights in July, and we will also start long-haul flights to our key Asian destinations. We will then add routes and frequencies month by month as demand recovers.”
With the majority of its aircraft having been grounded since early April, Finnair says the usual methods of developing a network based on demand have had to be adjusted.
“We cannot rely on the normal forecasting systems as much as we would normally,” says Patrick Nyqvist from Finnair’s traffic-planning team. “We need to rely on the trends we spot rather than being able to utilise optimization tools. People’s booking behaviour is very different, so we have to be working in a completely new mode.”
