Finnair has been forced to cut its flight resumption plan for September as travel restriction are slowly resurrecting with the second phase COVID-19 outbreak.
Finnair Today announced that it would be cutting its planned September schedule. The reason for the change is tied to the demand for air travel. Finnair commented that it has seen lower than expected demand for the coming months. This is something that has been attributed to new travel restrictions being implemented by many countries.
The company is scheduled to fly to all European destinations in September, but at a lower frequency. The exceptions are Nice and Turku, to which the company will stop flights in September.
Frequencies to some domestic destination will be adjusted. In September, Finnair will fly to Kuopio once a day and to Vaasa and Mariehamn five times a week. The company had also planned to start flights to Tampere in September, but due to the demand situation, these flights will be postponed.
“The corona situation has changed in many countries in recent weeks, which is why several countries have imposed new travel restrictions. There are still no connecting passengers from Asia and the United States to support European flights because of severe travel restrictions in these regions. Also, the local demand is more moderate than estimated due to the same restrictions. Therefore, we must adjust flights accordingly,” says Mikko Turtiainen, VP, Market Management. “In September, we will operate about 30% of the flights we had in September 2019.”
“On the other hand, Lapland and Kuusamo seem to be of more interest to domestic passengers than expected, which is why we are adding new flights to these destinations.”
Finnair will increase flights to Ivalo, Kittilä and Kuusamo in September by flying to Ivalo and Kittilä eight times a week and to Kuusamo nine times a week. Rovaniemi continues to be served with 28 weekly flights.
Finnair will contact customers on cancelled flights and re-route them on other flights. The majority of passengers on European flights can be accommodated on a new flight on the same day.
Flights according to the updated flight programme can be found on Finnair’s website.
Source: aviationn24.com