Norwegian Air in January announced it will bin its long-haul, low-cost business model, leaving the Nordic air travel market to be re-distributed between Finnair and SAS.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis opportunity presented itself to us during the pandemic, and we decided to seize it. We have nothing against it becoming a longer-term expansion,\u201d Topi Manner, the chief executive at Finnair, commented<\/a> to YLE on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Finnair will operate its long-haul flights from Stockholm with two Airbus A350s. It is also considering allocating some of the capacity is is adding in the coming years to Stockholm, according to Manner.<\/p>\n \u201cFinnair\u2019s capacity will grow in the coming years with the addition of three Airbus A350s,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s possible to allocate that also to Arlanda.\u201d<\/p>\n The three aircraft will complete a fleet of 19 Airbus A350s for Finnair.<\/p>\n Flying to the United States from Stockholm also signals a temporary strategic shift for the airline, which has traditionally focused on Asia and Europe. In Asia, however, travel restrictions are being eased more cautiously than expected: China, for example, is to re-open to visitors on a broader scale after the first half of 2022, according to Finnair.<\/p>\n Restrictions to Thailand and the United States were lifted in November.<\/p>\n Finnair is presently operating about half of the flights it did prior to the pandemic, roughly 130 a day. Air travel has recovered considerably faster in other parts of Europe, with airlines already operating about 80 per cent of their usual capacity.<\/p>\n Finnair on Monday reported that its comparable third-quarter operating result improved by about 60 million euros from the previous year to -110 million euros. The losses, it added, will continue to mount also in the first half of next year due to the sluggish recovery of air travel in Asia.<\/p>\n Its operating cash flow contrastively turned positive for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2019 on the back of strong booking intake and cargo operations.<\/p>\n \u201cRestrictions on travel between Finland and the rest of Europe were finally lifted in late July, much later than travel restrictions in the rest of Europe. Pent-up demand and the increase in vaccination coverage began to be positively reflected in bookings, especially from September,\u201d commented<\/a> Manner.<\/p>\n The exceptionally strong demand for air cargo is to continue until mid-2022.<\/p>\n Aleksi Teivainen \u2013 HT<\/p>\n<\/section>\n <\/p>\n