Finnair announced on Wednesday a reduction in their planes traffic program for October 2020. Due to low demand, the carrier’s previously published schedule of approximately 200 daily flights will be pared down to 70-80 daily flights.
On Wednesday (September 9, 2020), Finnair announced a substantial reduction in their published traffic program for October 2020 due to continued weak demand. The carrier had previously planned to operate approximately 200 daily flights in October but has now reduced their flight program to around 70-80 flights daily. All Finnair customers impacted by the reduced traffic program will be contacted directly by the airline and offered alternative flights when available. Finnair guests may also choose to receive a full refund for their tickets if the alternative flight option isn’t suitable. In today’s announcement, Finnair’s Chief Commercial Officer, Ole Orvér said,
“We want to maintain critical connections for Finland to European centres and to our most important Asian destinations, as travel is vital for the Finnish business community. However, as travel restrictions have a direct impact on demand, operating the traffic programme we published earlier is unfortunately not feasible.”
During October, Finnair will serve 42 destinations, albeit at lower frequencies than previously planned. The carrier will postpone the start of previously planned routes such as service to Bergen, Barcelona, Madrid, St. Petersburg and Stuttgart as well as domestic flights to Turku and Tampere. Finnair will continue to focus on long-haul flights to Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai, which also serve as vital cargo gateways. The carrier’s Helsinki-Nanjing route will continue to operate during September and October along with cargo-only flights to New York and Singapore. In comparison to the 70-80 daily flights that will be operated this October, during the same period last year Finnair operated about 350 daily flights to over 100 destinations in Europe, Asia and North America.
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. The carrier is also a member of the global oneworld® alliance and its shares are traded on the Nasdaq Helsinki stock exchange.
Source: Finnair