On May 14th, Finnair opened a direct flight between Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu Province, and Helsinki, the capital of Finland. According to Finnair, the new air route shows Finnair's expanding airline network in the booming Chinese market. Nanjing is Finnair’s seventh destination in China after Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Xi’an, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
The new air route will be operated by Airbus A330 aircraft of Finnair. This direct flight departs from Nanjing Lukou International Airport on 09:35 a.m Beijing Time, and arrives in Fanta Airport at 14:10 p.m local time. The flight takes about nine hours.
In the summer schedule, the Nanjing-Helsinki flight will depart every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. The return flight will be every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. In the winter, the flight will be scheduled twice a week. Finnair provides a Chinese-speaking crew, WeChat Pay and Alipay services during the flight.
Nanjing was widely acknowledged as one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, with rich culture and long history. The new air route can help boost the tourism between the two cities, and strength the business and culture communications.