Reindeer Route

It is the latest indication that the oneworld alliance member is on the rise in this part of the world, having been named Best Offline International Carrier at the Australian Federation of Travel Agents’ National Travel Industry Awards for the past three years.

Finnair country sales manager for Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia Geoff Stone describes the inclusion on the government panel as a “huge vote of confidence” in the airline.

Stone says he hopes being part of the list will help attract more premium passengers.

“In terms of the proposition of our business it is probably about 90 per cent leisure, with about five to 10 per cent corporate,” Stone tells Australian Aviation in an interview.

“However with this new deal we have got with the Australian government that may bump the percentage up a little bit. We hope it will. ” Offline recognises the fact Finnair does not serve Australia with its own aircraft. Instead, it has codeshare arrangements with fellow oneworld members British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, as well as interline agreements with Japan Airlines, to take passengers from Australia to Asia, where they transfer onto Finnair’s services to Helsinki and beyond.

Hong Kong and Singapore represent Finnair’s two most popular connection options, while its Bangkok, Tokyo and Shanghai services also carry some Australian traffic, despite passengers having to overnight because of a longer connection time. Although there is some pressure on seat availability out of Australia during peak times, recent capacity additions from Qantas and Cathay have proved helpful for Finnair in getting passengers to its Asian gateways.

The bulk of Finnair’s leisure travellers are retirees looking for some extra comforts for their overseas holidays. As a result, Finnair’s business class fares on the ‘Reindeer Route’ to Europe via Helsinki, which are priced very competitively compared with alternatives such as the Kangaroo Route (Qantas), Falcon Route (Gulf carriers) and Canton Route (China Southern), have proved very popular.

“We have in the vicinity of 50 per cent of our customers travel business class out of Australia which is a very high proportion,” Stone says.

“As we are at the bottom end of the world, a lot of our customers do fly business class. ” Stone says the popularity of Asia as a stopover en route to Europe is on the rise amid increasing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. And having two-stop itineraries to Europe isn’t the negative that some might think.

“It comes in waves in terms of going via the Middle East or going via Asia. We are finding that with the unrest that goes on in the Middle East that Asia is coming back into its own in terms of the preferred gateway to Europe,” Stone says.

“I have often heard this comment that ‘I’ve been to Dubai many times now and I am a little bit bored by it or the shopping is no cheaper than Australia and I have more options within Asia’.

“We are getting a lot of repeat customers and people have no problem with going to Europe once a year these days. ” Finnair has focused in recent years on building its Helsinki hub into an efficient transfer point connecting the airline’s extensive European network with a growing number of destinations in Asia that include points in China, Japan, India, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and elsewhere.

The airline recently added a fourth online point in Japan with a seasonal service to Fukuoka, while it returned to Guangzhou in early May after dropping the route 10 years ago.

And in terms of fleet utilisation, many of these Asian points can be effectively served with one aircraft given the less-than-12-hours travel time, particularly from Helsinki to North Asia.

There should be more new cities in the period ahead as Finnair takes delivery of new Airbus A350-900s – the airline has ordered 19 of the type – and retires the last of its ageing A340-300s.

Stone says Kuala Lumpur, which like neighbouring Singapore is right on the 12-hour limit, is definitely in the mix given it is the home hub of fellow oneworld member Malaysia Airlines.

“Of course it would make perfect sense for us being a oneworld carrier to look at somewhere like Kuala Lumpur because that’s always been on the top of our list,” Stone says.

“Due to the fact that we are oneworld, the fact that KL is serviced by Malaysia Airlines, that would open up more availability options for Australian customers with Malaysia Airlines.

“We will continue to look at that. ” London continues to be Finnair’s most popular destination from Australia, while France still has healthy passenger numbers despite the recent terrorist attacks in Paris. And new points on Finnair’s European network – which covers about 60 destinations on the continent – such as Dublin and Edinburgh are also selling well in the local market.

Recognising Australians’ preference for breaking the journey once, or possibly more than once, when making the long trek to Europe and back, all Finnair fares allow for stopovers both in Asia and in Helsinki, as well as single or double open jaw itineraries that allow passengers to fly into one city and out of another, and via different transit points in both directions.

While Helsinki-Vantaa Airport is one of the most efficient in Europe for transit passengers – the minimum connecting time for a flight from a Schengen area to a non-Schengen area is 40 minutes – the Finnish government has also begun a push to boost tourism to the country with a new StopOver Finland project run by its local tourism board Visit Finland and travel company Primera Holidays, offering packages ranging from quick five-hour layovers to a five-day tour.

And onboard product improvements courtesy of the A350-900 – Finnair was just the third airline in the world and first in Europe to operate the new generation aircraft – mean the passenger experience on the Finnair portion of the journey is, Stone says, equal or better to what is on the partner service out of Australia.

The A350-900, configured with 46 fully flat business class seats, 43 extra legroom economy seats and 208 standard economy seats, represents a significant improvement from the A340-300s that it is replacing, which had an angled lie flat product in the business cabin.

On long-haul routes Finnair currently deploys the A350-900 to Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai, with Singapore, Seoul (Incheon) and Ho Chi Minh City set to get upgraded to the new Airbus widebody later in 2016.

Stone says it is this combination of European network, flexible fares and onboard offering that ensures Finnair can compete against both online carriers and other Australian offline competitors such as Lufthansa for European traffic. While the total market for Australians travelling to Europe was up about four per cent in the first three months of 2016, Finnair reported a 20 per cent increase in bookings from this part of the world, compared with the prior corresponding period.

“I think Finnair Australia is somewhat bucking the trend in terms of what sort of increases we are experiencing compared to the market as a whole,” Stone says.

“In this market, of recent times we have somewhat taken over the mantle as the largest offline carrier. ” One other aspect that sets Finnair apart from other European flag carriers is the absence of the big three Gulf carriers at its home port.

In a sense, Finnair is competing for the same passengers looking to travel from Asia to Europe with one-stop itineraries.

However, the market dynamics may change from October when Qatar Airways begins daily Doha-Helsinki services with narrowbody A320s.

Stone says he doesn’t expect Qatar’s arrival in Helsinki to have any major impact on Finnair’s operations out of Australia.

“It is still a relatively long flight from Australia to the Middle East. We see that Asia is a great halfway point in terms of travelling to Europe,” he says.

“I also understand that Qatar from Doha to Helsinki are only using an Airbus A320 so it is also about customer choice and what sort of aircraft product they want to use and are happy to work with.

“If they are wanting to break up the journey, is Doha really a destination that is going to be a long-lasting destination choice? “Like what happened with Qantas and Emirates and Dubai, it may serve as a small blip on our radar but I don’t think that Helsinki is going to be a major destination for Qatar as such. ” A research note from aviation consulting house CAPA – Centre for Aviation dated February 11 said Finnair’s outlook for the period ahead was “brighter than for some years” after the airline posted a return to profitability in calendar 2015.

“Over the longer term, Asia remains Finnair’s key strategic growth market,” CAPA said.

Having two-stop itineraries to Europe isn’t the negative that some might think.