By now readers will have read our reports on how some airlines continue to serve Asia by circumventing Russian airspace.
Today comes news that Finnair will join KLM in serving Shanghai and Seoul in the coming days.
Finnair will operate flights to Shanghai once a week on Thursdays from March 10.
Seoul follows on March 12 with flights every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.
Finnair says flight times will vary between 12 and 14 hours on any given day, depending on the route and direction of travel.
“Both routes go around the Russian airspace from the south, and the return flight from Seoul to Helsinki can also take the northern route,” said the carrier.
“We strive to offer our customers connections between Europe and Asia to the extent it is possible in this challenging situation,” said chief commercial officer Ole Orver.
Finnair says these longer routings impact on costs of fuel and staff costs.
It says that higher freight prices helps cover the additional costs it is incurring.
However it does not say that savings are also made by avoiding Russian overflying royalties.
The rising oil price must be a concern. At one point this morning Brent Crude touched $140.
Note that Finnair says it will not be serving Hong Hong and Osaka until the end of April.
It will continue to serve Bangkok and Singapore avoiding Russia.
