Finnair chosen as airline partner during the EU-China Tourism Year 2018

Finnair is proud to cooperate as a selected airline partner to the EU – China Tourism Year 2018.  The EU – China Tourism Year focuses on developing travel between China and Europe. The main priorities of the tourism year include improving the travel and tourism experiences of travellers while visiting the EU and China, organizing business to business networking opportunities for tourist partners and facilitating business summits as well as supporting various marketing campaigns.

“Finnair highly supports the EU – China Tourism Year with China being a strategic market for us. The objectives of the tourism year are in-line with the objectives of Finnair. Finnair was the first Western European airline to fly nonstop to Beijing and we will be celebrating 30 years of experience flying between Beijing and Helsinki this June. We look forward to continuing to develop and support travel between China and Europe during this special year,” says Juha Järvinen, Chief Commercial Officer at Finnair.

Finnair will add a seventh city in Greater China to its network in May 2018, with a direct year-round route to Nanjing. Finnair also operates to Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Xian and Chongqing. “A strength of Finnair in the Chinese market is our long history of flights to China as well as the network of Finnair covering seven cities,” says Mikko Turtiainen, Vice President for Global Sales at Finnair.

Air connectivity is an important topic during the EU – China Tourism Year. Finnair connects seven cities in Greater China with over 100 cities in Europe via its Helsinki hub. “We place a strong emphasis on smooth connections, and premium customer experience. Finnair has placed great effort on developing services for the Chinese passenger; Steven Liu signature menus in Business class, incorporating Alipay and WeChat pay solutions, having Chinese cabin crew onboard flights between China and Helsinki as well as Chinese signage and customer service staff at our Helsinki hub. Welcome onboard!” says Juha Järvinen.

Finnair will also become the first European airline to join as a member of the Welcome Chinese program in 2018. “With the EU China Tourism Year, this is the perfect time to join the Welcome Chinese program. Finnair is looking forward to the cooperation strengthening the Finnair brand and increasing knowledge of services that Finnair offer the Chinese traveller,” summarizes Mikko Turtiainen.