Asia benefits from Finnair's winter timetable

Finnair's winter timetable for the period from October 26, 2003 until March 27, 2004 has been published, in advance of the start of the winter season. Miami returns to Finnair's winter scheduled route network after a year's absence, and Asia is served by 20 weekly scheduled flights over the winter period. Direct flights from Europe to Lapland are also more extensive than before.

Finnair flies to the Florida city of Miami twice a week, on Thursdays and Saturdays as of October 23 until the end of the winter season. Florida offers a variety of attractions for family holidays, including Disney World and Sea World. The US dollar exchange rate is also more favourable than it has been for a long time for travellers from Finland.

Miami provides excellent onward connections to South and Central America. For example, convenient flight connections to the Caribbean are available on flights operated by Finnair's oneworld alliance partner, American Airlines. Finnair's domestic network also connects well with the Miami departures from Helsinki.

The opening of the new route service to Shanghai in September means that flights to mainland China now operate 11 times a week. Flights to Shanghai operate three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays through the winter. Beijing is served five times a week and there is a three-weekly frequency for flights to Hong Kong. Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok and Singapore complete Finnair's extensive Asian network.

Services to Prague are streamlined in accordance with demand over the winter period, with the four-weekly frequency trimmed to twice a week until February 28, 2004. Flights to Dublin will be withdrawn entirely until mid-March.

Recent revision of Finnair's pricing policy, in response to customer preferences, involves the adoption of a Oneclass system on flights to the eastern European destinations of Budapest, St Petersburg, Prague, Riga, Tallinn, Warsaw and Vilnius. All passengers on all these flights will be provided with Economy Class services.

Swedish low-cost airline Nordic Airlink, of which Finnair owns a controlling share, already flies regularly between Stockholm and Luulaja in northern Sweden, and as of October 27 it starts 16 daily flights between Stockholm and Oslo, eight in each direction. The connection has been conceived for both business and leisure passengers. A service linking Stockholm and Copenhagen is planned for March.

Four European cities will be served with direct Finnair connections to four destinations in Lapland this winter. These services will significantly reduce travel time between Europe and Lapland. From December 13, traffic will start on flights from Zurich to Kittilä and from Milan to Rovaniemi. A non-stop flight from Amsterdam to Kuusamo in northern Finland will also be launched. Flights from Paris will be operated to Rovaniemi, Ivalo and Kittilä.

Over the winter season, a total of 25 daily flights will operate between Oulu in northern Finland and Helsinki.