Owing to what Easyjet calls “lack of demand” the budget carrier will cease flying its three routes to Helsinki by early July.
Flights from Manchester with end on June 13, followed by services out of London Gatwick on June 22. Easyjet’s third route to Helsinki, a daily service out of Paris CDG, will stop on July 7. It means that Easyjet will no longer serve any destination in Finland.
Budget flights to Helsinki from the UK have had mixed fortunes. Readers with long memories will remember that Buzz (a budget airline owned by Holland’s KLM) once tackled this 1,100 mile route out of London Stansted but also failed to make it a success.
One reason given by Buzz management at the time it pulled off of the route was the extended flying time required to reach Helsinki. Buzz claimed that the business model for budget carriers meant they found shorter, rather than longer, sectors more profitable.
Once Easyjet pulls off the Helsinki route, the sole budget service to the Finnish capital will be the twice daily operation by Blue 1 (a subsidiary of Scandinavia’s SAS) out of London Heathrow. Blue 1 also operates to Helsinki out of Paris CDG in conjunction with SAS.
Easyjet says it will allocate the aircraft in question to other routes. In the case of Manchester, the airline’s timetable indicates the launch of a new service to Bilboa on June 17.
For more information visit easyjet.com.
Report by Alex McWhirter
