Finnair is extending its reach in Southeast Asia by codesharing with Hong Kong-based Cathay Dragon on six of its flights starting next week, in a move that will see four new destinations added to the Finnish carrier’s network.
Beginning June 15, passengers travelling with Finnair can also connect onto flights operated by Cathay Dragon, the regional subsidiary of Cathay Pacific, between Hong Kong and Hanoi and Danang in Vietnam, Yangon in Myanmar and Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in Cambodia.
Tickets for these flights went on sale yesterday.
Meanwhile next month, Finnair will begin placing its code on Cathay Dragon’s flights between Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. These flights can be booked starting June 28 for travel beginning July 11.
Codesharing on these flights means that Finnair customers can enjoy Oneworld privileges when travelling on these Cathay Dragon routes as well as being able to earn and redeem frequent-flyer miles.
“We warmly welcome this cooperation with Cathay Dragon and are delighted to offer our customers yet more destinations and smooth connections in Asia,” said Philip Lewin, head of alliances and partnerships at Finnair.
“Currently Finnair offers 10 weekly round trips from Helsinki to Hong Kong and adds a new frequency during this winter season.
This flight is operated by one of the airline’s newest aircraft, the Airbus A350-900.
Business Traveller Asia-Pacific has previously reviewed Finnair’s business class product and service on this route.
The move comes as Finnair looks to expand its reach across Asia-Pacific, a strategy made possible since it obtained additional overfly rights from the Russian government last year. This has given the airline the ability to operate up to 80 flights per week using a much shorter trans-Siberian corridor between Europe and Asia.
Since then, Finnair has announced a new service to Nanjing in China, as well as frequency increases on its flights to Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Hong Kong, Delhi and Phuket for the 2018/2019 winter season.
Cathay Dragon, for its part, is also expanding its own presence in Southeast Asia with new routes to Davao City in the Philippines and Medan in Indonesia set to take off this October.
