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As far as its US network is concerned, it has been a big six months for Finnair. In July it announced a new service between Stockholm and Miami, in September it announced new routes from Stockholm to Los Angeles and New York, and in November it announced a new route between Helsinki and Dallas Fort Worth that’s set to launch in February 2022 (delayed to March 2022). Now the airline has gone a step further and announced yet another new US Route which will launch in summer 2022.
Finnair’s new route to Seattle
From 1 June 2022, Finnair will launch a new route between Helsinki and Seattle on the following schedule:
AY33 HEL 17:55 – 17:40 SEA (Mon, Wed, & Fri)
AY34 SEA 19:20 – 14:50+1 day HEL (Mon, Wed, & Fri)
The timings on this route look good. The late afternoon departure out of Helsinki means that it should be possible for travelers across Europe to position to Helsinki to fly this route without having to book an overnight stay, and the arrival time into Seattle should make it possible for passengers to connect to elsewhere on the same day if Seattle isn’t their final destination.
This service is currently set to operate through to the end of the IATA summer season with the last departure from Helsinki on 28 October but there’s a chance that it may return for winter 2022/23 once the schedules are updated – with American Airlines making a play for Seattle, the European carrier may see this route as another way to feed into its transatlantic partner’s US network all year round.
The new route to/from Seattle will be operated by Finnair’s Airbus A330 aircraft about which more information can be found further on in this post.
Finnair will add more flights to Los Angeles & New York
As well as announcing its new route to Seattle, Finnair has today confirmed that its recently introduced routes from Stockholm to Los Angeles and New York will be getting more flights from May onwards.
Stockholm – Los Angeles
As things stand, this route is operated 3x/week but that will increase to 4x/week from 1 May 2022. This is what the new schedule will look like:
AY3 ARN 15:20 – 17:10 LAX (Mon, Wed, Thu & Sat)
AY4 LAX 18:55 – 14:25 ARN+1 day (Mon, Wed, Thu & Sat)
This route will continue to be operated by Finnair’s A350-900 aircraft and is currently set to operate to the end of the IATA summer season with the last departure from Stockholm on 29 October. This is, however, every chance that this route will return in winter 2022/23 when the schedules are updated.
Stockholm – New York (JFK)
As things stand, this route is operated 3x/week but that will increase to a daily service from 1 May 2022. This is what the new schedule will look like:
AY29 ARN 17:00 – 19:10 JFK (Daily)
AY30 JFK 20:55 – 10:25 ARN+1 day (Daily)
This route will continue to be operated by Finnair’s A350-900 aircraft and is currently set to operate to the end of the IATA summer season with the last departure from Stockholm on 29 October. This is, however, every chance that this route will return in winter 2022/23 when the schedules are updated.
The Finnair A330-300
The new route to/from Seattle will be operated by Finnair’s Airbus A330 aircraft which, unlike the airline’s excellent A350s, do not offer an all-aisle-access Business Class cabin. Instead, the Business Class cabin looks like this:
The solo ‘Throne’ seats on the left side of the cabin appear to be the best choice for anyone looking for the maximum amount of personal space, while couples wishing to sit together will almost certainly be better off with two seats in the center of the aircraft.
As I’ve never flown on this aircraft and only seen images of the Business Class cabin (albeit hundreds of them), I’m going to suggest that anyone wanting more details on the Finnair A330 Business Class cabin should read Live and Let Fly’s review here.
There’s good news for travelers not booking the frontmost cabin on this aircraft as the Finnair A330 offers better-than-average seating in Economy Class.
There are 40 Economy Comfort seats on offer which offer up to 37″ of pitch (legroom) and which are 18″ wide, and the rest of the Economy Class cabin is home to seats that are also 18″ wide with 32″ of pitch. Compared to most transatlantic Economy Class cabins, this one is spacious.
Bottom line
Finnair has announced that it will launch a new non-stop service between Helsinki and Seattle from 1 June next year as well as adding more flights to two of it’s existing US routes from 1 May 2022. Overall, summer 2022 should see Finnair operating more services to the United States than it has ever done before so with Business Class fares out of the Nordic countries often being very competitive, this is very good news for transatlantic travelers.
