Finnair announced on Tuesday a deepening of their partnership with Shanghai-based Juneyao Air. The airlines plan on entering a joint venture on the Helsinki-Shanghai route, offering business and leisure guests a seamless travel experience.
On Tuesday, Finnair announced a deepening of their existing partnership with Shanghai-based Juneyao Air. The Letter of Intent signed today aims to establish a joint venture on their Helsinki-Shanghai route which will offer guests of both airlines seamless connections, a wider choice of destinations and expanded schedule and fare options through Finnair’s Helsinki (HEL) hub and Juneyao’s Shanghai (PVG) hub. In Tuesday’s announcement, Finnair’s Chief Commercial Officer, Ole Orver said,
“Despite these immensely challenging times for our industry, we at Finnair remain steadfast in our belief and commitment to China as a key market and to Juneyao Air as a key partner. Over the last year we have built up a close and mutually beneficial partnership with Juneyao Air. Taking the important step to evolve this into a deeper cooperation focused on our Shanghai and Helsinki hubs will allow us to not only serve our customers even better, but also to lay a platform for further growth in the future, once the aviation market starts to normalize.”
Finnair has been codesharing with Juneyao Air since the Chinese carrier launched their Shanghai-Helsinki route in July 2019. The codeshare also includes select routes from Helsinki to Europe as well as from Shanghai to further destinations in China. Additionally, the carriers implemented a reciprocal frequent flyer agreement for Finnair Plus and Juneyao Air Club members in August 2019, which allows guests to earn and redeem miles and points throughout both networks. The new joint venture will greatly expand codeshared routes beyond Helsinki and Shanghai-Pudong and include enhanced benefits for frequent travelers of both airlines.
Specializing in passenger and cargo traffic between Asia and Europe, Finnair has a competitive advantage due to their geographical location. Finnair is also the only Nordic network with a 4-Star Skytrax rating and carried over 14.7 million passengers in 2019, earning revenues of €3.1 billion.
Founded in September 2006, Juneyao Air is one of the leading privately-owned airlines in Mainland China and maintains operating bases in Shanghai and Nanjing. The carrier serves destinations throughout Asia and Europe with a fleet of 74 aircraft including Airbus A320s and Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Juneyao Air carried over 20 million passengers in 2019 and has been a Star Alliance Connecting Partner since May 2017. The carrier was awarded ‘Best Regional Airline in the Asia-Pacific’ region for 2019.
Source: Finnair