Italy valuable lynchpin in Finnair strategy

The new A350 XWB

ROME - Next summer Naples and Catania are to be added to the Finnish airline’s network.

 In an interview, recently released to the Milan based magazine Guidaviaggi, the Finnish Finnair airline’s CEO, Pekka Vauramo, made an overview of the national airline’s perspectives in the difficult times of the global economy. He stressed the leading policies of the company mainly focused in a so-called ‘Asian strategy’ with its 15 destinations in the Far East, he touched also on perspectives of the Italian market.

 Approaching Christmas, the airline schedules improved flights to the capital of Finnish Lapland, Rovaniemi, a popular destination for families and children, being the world-recognized home of Santa Claus.

 Finnair has just celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first regular flight to Milan from Helsinki and return, which started in August 1964 with a Super Caravelle aircraft. Vauramo confirmed that, “Italy attracts moreFinnish and Nordic customers for reasons related to culture, art and tourism in general, but is also a transit hub for those coming or going to Asia with our flights. 2014 has marked 50 years of our regular scheduled traffic with Milan, and Rome is linked to Finland from 1977. Seasonally, we open from time to time links with other cities, such as Pisa last summer, and next year to Catania and Naples”.

Finnair, which is one of the oldest operating airlines in the world, has just had its 90th anniversary, having been established in 1923, and nowadays links Italy, via Helsinki, to Asian destinations via the shorter route.

Finnair CEO Pekka Vauramo. Photo: G. Nitti