Finnair to boost Dublin-Helsinki flights from 2017

Finnair plans to increase flights from Dublin to Helsinki in the summer of 2017, the second extension of its services since it launched them last year.

The Finnish airline plans to fly six-times a week between both cities from March 2017, an increase of three flights a week compared to its winter schedule.

Last year, shortly before it launched summer-season Dublin-Helsinki flights, Finnair announced that it would extend the service into the winter months.

It will use a mix of Airbus and the slightly smaller Embraer craft on the route during the 2017 summer season.

Finnair is bidding to tap into growing demand for services to the Far East by scheduling its Dublin-Helsinki flights to allow quick connection to destinations in Asia.

The airline says that it offers some of the quickest times from Europe to the Far East as it flies from Helsinki over the Arctic Circle to Asia, a shorter route than that taken by most other carriers.

Including the three-hour flight time to Helsinki, Finnair maintains that its journey from Dublin to Beijing takes 14 hours, Tokyo takes 15 hours while Hong Kong takes 13 hours and 25 minutes.

Finnair's planned increase in capacity on its Dublin service is part of an overall expansion of capacity and routes between the northern European country and Ireland and Britain.

Andrew Fish, sales director for Ireland, the UK and Benelux, said, "Finnair is pleased to announce these enhancements, due to passenger demand, to our summer 2017 schedule between the UK, Ireland and Helsinki."