Finnair Celebrates 55 Years Of USA Flights

The flag carrier of Finland is celebrating 55 years of flights between Helsinki and the United States. Finnair launched its first service to New York ‘back in the summer of 69’ and is expanding its US presence this fall with additional flights to Dallas.

A lengthy history

Finnair is one of the oldest airlines in the world, celebrating its 100th birthday last November. One of only six airlines worldwide to celebrate a centenary, Finnair hosted events across its network and even painted two of its Airbus A350s in a special Moonim livery. Today, the oneworld Alliance carrier flies to over 100 destinations from its hub at Helsinki Airport (HEL).

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Finnair’s 1969 service to New York marked the airline’s first intercontinental expansion and featured two stops along the way. Passengers on the Nordic airline’s first flight to the US departed Helsinki on May 15th, 1969, aboard a Douglas DC-8 aircraft.

The flight stopped in Copenhagen and Amsterdam before reaching New York JFK, a route that continued for 15 years. The airline employed specially trained ‘Finn Hostesses’ for the new transatlantic flights, who were given designer uniforms and greeted customers flying in first class with champagne and caviar.

The launch year was also a momentous one for aviation history in general. In addition to Finnair’s historic flight, 1969 saw the first Boeing 747 flight that February, followed by Concorde’s first foray the following month.

Fifty-five years of Finnair in NYC

Nonstop flights began in 1984 and are today operated by the airline’s flagship Airbus A350 and A330 aircraft. The carrier continues to offer daily flights to New York JFK’s Terminal 8 to facilitate connections with its airline partners. Simple Flying was on hand for the airline’s celebration of the route at the Sandbar Rooftop in NYC this month, where Pasi Kuusisto, Finnair General Manager of North America, highlighted the significance of this milestone:

“New York has always been an important market for Finnair, being our first intercontinental route, so to celebrate over half a century of flights is a huge milestone on our journey.

“Whether it be connecting families and friends, making that in-person business meeting possible, or flying travellers on their well-deserved vacation, our New York route has always been a hit with customers.

“From our first flight on a Douglas DC-8 aircraft, to our flagship A330 and A350s complete with new cabin today, we have come a long way, and look forward to welcoming more customers onboard in the next 55 years and beyond.”

Photo: Jonathan E. Hendry | Simple Flying

The Finnish airline offers direct flights to Helsinki from six North American destinations. The carrier operates year-round services to New York (JFK), Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), and Los Angeles (LAX). These services are supplemented by summer seasonal flights to Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) and Seattle-Tacoma (SEA), a key hub for oneworld partner Alaska Airlines.

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Funnily enough, that carrier’s first route is its joint most-served route today.

In winter, Finnair offers seasonal service to Miami International Airport (MIA) from Helsinki, catering to snowbirds from Scandinavia looking for a spot of sunshine.

Photo: Jonathan E. Hendry | Simple Flying

All services departing have been specifically timed to facilitate easy connections to the carrier’s extensive European network, which includes 27 Nordic and four Baltic destinations. Customers flying further afield even have the option of a once-in-a-lifetime flight.

North Pole adventures

One of the most unique benefits offered to passengers flying to Asia on Finnair is the ability to fly over the North Pole. While the closure of Russian airspace has forced the carrier to realign its network, it has long utilized the Arctic polar route to reach destinations faster than its Southern European competitors. Antti Tolvanen, Senior Vice President of Network & Revenue Management, told Simple Flying which flights took the scenic route:

“That northern route we take to North East Asia. That would be on our Japan and South Korea operations, mostly.

“This has been the key for us and then of course a big change from the previous routings that we had.”

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Destinations further south in Asia sometimes also get the polar routing, as flights may go the southern route down and then fly back over the North Pole or both ways, depending on the wind situation.

Connecting passengers can also benefit from the simplicity of transferring at the carrier’s Helsinki hub with its single terminal and transfer times of 35 minutes. Tolvanen highlighted the convenience compared to other oneworld Alliance hubs like London Heathrow (LHR) and Doha (DOH):

“It is quite a convenient airport to transfer with the nice, beautiful new terminal that we have there, and we can do very, very short connections. – If you have around 45 minutes for connecting in Helsinki, that works very well.

“The minimum connection time that we have has been 35 minutes, but even that is sometimes too big for customers.”

Photo: Mari Lappalainen | Finavia

In addition to flights over the North Pole, the carrier maintains strong connections to Northern Europe, including the Nordic and Baltic regions. As the official airline of Santa Claus, Finnair is also the only carrier that flies year-round to Finnish Lapland.

Finnair gets ‘Bigger in Texas’

One of Finniar’s most significant sources of passengers from the Americas is Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) in Texas. The carrier recently announced that beginning October 24th, it will increase the frequency of its Dallas-to-Helsinki route from five times per week to daily.

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The airport is a significant traffic source for Finnair thanks to its deep partnership with home carrier American Airlines. In addition to being oneworld Alliance partners, the airlines are both part of the Atlantic Joint Business, a joint venture that started in 2010 between American Airlines, British Airways, and Iberia. Finnair joined the group in 2013, followed by LEVEL in 2017 and Aer Lingus in 2021.

Photo: Leena Robinson | Shutterstock

The partnership goes deeper than the oneworld Alliance, with the airlines coordinating codeshare numbers, schedules, and customer value propositions. For Finnair, it opens up a vast number of potential connections. American Airlines alone is responsible for over 850 destinations to more than 230 destinations from the Texas hub, with Tolvanen noting:

“When you look at the customers who are traveling with us from Dallas, they come from all over the North America and all over the United States.”

It is not just the United States that benefit from one-stop connections to Scandinavia and beyond. Pasi highlighted significant growth originating south of the border:

“Mexico is becoming more and more important because American Airlines has a strong presence there. Especially after COVID, we have seen an increase in the number of passengers flying either from Europe to Mexico or Mexico to Europe.

“Then, of course, American Airlines has a big presence in South America. So we’ve seen those passengers as well.”

In addition to expanding its US presence, the airline recently adopted Avios as the currency for its loyalty program, Finnair Plus, which now has over four million users worldwide. The move aligns the Finnish carrier with other carriers in its transatlantic joint venture in offering a transferrable frequent flyer mile.

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Aer Lingus, in particular, is no longer in the oneworld Alliance but is part of the joint venture and uses Avios for its loyalty program. In addition to the IAG carriers (Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, and Vueling), Avios is also the currency of Qatar Airways’ Privilege Club loyalty program.

Have you ever flown Finnair from North America or over the North Pole? Let us know in the comments below…