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Roundup: Low cost Ryanair cuts back in Finland but envisions benefit from Finnair Asian connections

Xinhua, October 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

The latest announcement by major low cost carrier Ryanair to further reduce its service from Finland is an indication of the problems many low cost carriers have had when trying to reach Finland.

At the same time, Ryanair said it aims to get landing rights for the Helsinki-Vantaa airport serving Helsinki and benefit from the large scale Finnair services between Helsinki and Asian destinations.

While "no-frills" carriers have taken a good slice of the air traffic on the European continent, Finland is simply too far out.

"During the time it takes to make a return flight to Finland from the continent, an aircraft can make two return flights within continental Europe," Ryanair commercial director David O'Brien was quoted by Finnish media as saying on Thursday.

Ryanair said, however, it is negotiating with the Finnish air transport authority about routes to Helsinki. When such flights materialize, the low cost carrier could get some of the business associated with the Finnair long hauls to and from Asia.

So far the Finnish state majority owned Finnair and its one-world alliance partners have maintained a dense feeder network connecting continental Europe with Helsinki. The volume of passengers in and out of Finland as such would not warrant such a network, but it serves mainly Finnair passengers to and from Asia.

In the current situation, Finnair long haul passengers have not had much of an alternative of continuing on appreciably lower fares from Helsinki, but have used Finnair through-tariff fares.

In the future, a low cost carrier is expected to offer at least some of the connections cheaply, but a transfer in Helsinki to a low cost carrier would involve more hassle, and checked luggage transfer would require additional arrangements.

The envisaged Ryanair connection to Helsinki would not be from London Heathrow served now by Finnair feeders, but from an outer fringe airport in Stansted. O'Brien said in this way the low cost carrier would first secure rights to capital airports in Stockholm and Oslo and then venture to Helsinki. Endit