News

Finnair reveals five A350 destinations

9 Apr 2015 by GrahamSmith

Finnair has announced the first long-haul destinations for its new A350 XWB aircraft.

The carrier will first roster the aircraft on crew familiarisation flights, including from Helsinki to London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol, in October.

These will start on October 5, when Finnair will debut its A350 on a service to Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland. For a full list of crew familiarisation flights, click here.

Finnair A350

It will then fly the A350 to Shanghai, daily from October 25, and to Beijing, daily from November 21.

Finnair's routes to Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore will be served with a combination of A350 and A330 aircraft from December 5, February 1 and May 5 next year respectively.

Finnair CEO Pekka Vauramo said: "Our A350 investment program is the largest in the company's 92-year history, and these aircraft will form the backbone of our long-haul operations for years to come while also playing an essential role in our sustainable, long-term profitability."

Finnair is the first European airline to operate the A350. It has 19 of the aircraft on order, each equipped with wifi, and expects to receive the first four by the end of this year.

Finnair A350 business class cabin

A350 business cabin

The 297-seat configuration has 46 seats in business class, 43 in Economy Comfort and 208 in economy (see news, August 2014).

The 46 seats in business are in a 1-2-1 configuration. The seating is the Zodiac Cirrus III seat that is also fitted on American Airlines and Cathay Pacific aircraft and is being introduced on the Air France fleet.

However, Finnair has chosen a tighter configuration with less legroom — 78 inches when fully reclined, in comparison with 82 inches on board Cathay Pacific, for instance.

Seat in economy have a 31-inch seat pitch and are configured 3-3-3. At the front of the economy cabin, the 43 Economy Comfort seats come with four extra inches of legroom as well as noise-cancelling headphones and an amenity kit.

finnair.com

Graham Smith

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