Finnair Adds More A350 Flights To Asia – Good News For Oneworld Flyers

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Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m a fan of Finnair and a fan of the A350 aircraft too so, to them, it won’t come as too much of a surprise when I say how happy I am that Finnair will be adding more frequencies and more capacity to two of its Asia routes and it will be doing this with its A350 aircraft.

Finnair Adds Capacity and Frequencies To Tokyo & Hong Kong

Finnair has announced that, for summer 2017, it will increase the number of flights it will offer on its Helsinki – Tokyo and Helsinki – Hong Kong Routes AND the airline has confirmed that all the new flights will be operated using the fantastic Airbus A350 aircraft.

Helsinki – Tokyo

As things stand Finnair offers a daily service between Helsinki and Tokyo Narita operated by its Airbus A330s but, between 5 June and 27 October 2017, Finnair will add a further 4 weekly flights to the route using its A350s.

The new schedule is already loaded in the airline’s systems and looks like this:

AY71 HEL 16:45 – 08:05+1 day NRT (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun) – NEW A350 Service
AY73 HEL 17:15 – 08:55+1 day NRT (Daily) – A330 Service

AY72 NRT 09:50 – 13:50 HEL (Mon, Tue, Thu, Sat) – NEW A350 Service
AY74 NRT 11:00 – 15:20 HEL (Daily) – A330 Service

Finnair A350 Business Class seat

The clear benefit of these new flights is the option to fly in the A350 rather than the A330 as, apart from that, there isn’t too much different – the new flights don’t exactly give much more choice in flight times.

If you’re connecting to the outbound flights from another European country then you have ample time to get to Helsinki and, on the return journey, the flights get in to Helsinki early enough to allow same day connections back to where you started your journey.

Helsinki – Hong Kong

As with its Tokyo route Finnair operates the Helsinki – Hong Kong route on a daily schedule but, between 6 June and 28 October 2017, the airline will add a further 3 weekly flights which will be operated by A350 aircraft.

AY61 HEL 16:45 – 07:25+1 day HKG (Tue, Thu, Sat) – NEW A350 Service
AY69 HEL 23:50 – 14:30+1 day HKG (Daily) – Existing A350 service

AY70 HKG 00:25 – 06:00 HEL (Daily) – Existing A350 service
AY62 HKG 09:10 – 14:25 HEL (Wed, Fri, Sun) – NEW A350 Service

Finnair Economy Class A350

The new outbound flight at 16:45 is a huge improvement over the 23:50 departure from Helsinki and it means travelers can arrive into Hong Kong and have a full day ahead of them. Likewise the new return option at 09:10 looks a lot more attractive than the 00:25 existing flight…especially if you’re staying at a hotel where check-out is 12 noon.

Good News For Oneworld Flyers

Finnair is second only to Qatar Airways when it comes to publishing great Business Class fares between Europe and Asia and, with summer being a traditionally slow season for Business Class travel, the extra capacity on the Hong Kong and Tokyo routes should help keep premium cabin fares nice and low.

If you’re crediting your flights to the British Airways Executive Club or to American Airline’s AAdvantage program these flights, combined with cheap business Class fares, could be a nice and economical way to earn some miles and earn/maintain your status at the same time.

Bottom Line

From a purely selfish point of view I’m delighted with this news. Tokyo is top Joanna’s “places to visit” list and she loves Hong Kong so I’m hoping Finnair comes out with some fares that allow us to route to both those cities, cheaply, on a single trip.

I’ve flown in the Finnair A350 so I know I like the Business Class cabin and I’ve had layovers in Helsinki a few times so I know the lounges are ok too (reviewed here and here). On top of that I’ve had very good experiences with Finnair’s short-haul flights (which will probably be needed to get the cheapest Business Class fares on these routes) so Hong Kong and Tokyo are definitely in play for our Summer 2017 plans.