Finnair to add new aircraft to meet long-haul demand; opens a daily route to Singapore next May

Finnair will acquire two 270-seat Airbus A340 wide-bodied aircraft to meet its growing long-haul traffic needs.

The aircraft will be acquired on lease agreements of around four years from the leasing company ILFC. The aircraft will join the Finnair fleet in late 2010 and early 2011.

Finnair currently has 12 Airbus long-haul aircraft, which fly to nine destinations in Asia as well as to New York in North America.

With the coming additions, Finnair's long-haul fleet will grow to a total 15 Airbus aircraft by the beginning of next year.

Next May, Finnair will open a daily direct route to Singapore. The Finnair flight, which will be the only direct connection between Northern Europe and Singapore, will provide excellent service to business passengers. For Asian passengers, the Singapore route will offer excellent onward connections via Finnair's route network to 50 European destinations.

Finnair will also increase direct flights to Hong Kong. Instead of the earlier seven flights, Finnair will fly to Hong Kong with a frequency of 12 flights per week from June next year.

During spring 2011, more frequencies will be added to the other current Asian destinations.