Finnair joins EU-China Tourism Year initiative

Finnair has been chosen as a selected airline partner to the EU-China Tourism Year 2018, an initiative designed to boost travel between China and Europe.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and Chinese Prime Minister, Li Keqiang announced that 2018 would be the EU-China Tourism Year (ECTY) in July 2016, recognising that it would be “a unique opportunity to increase visitors’ flows and investments on both sides”.

The main priorities of the tourism year include improving the travel and tourism experiences of travellers while visiting the EU and China, organising business-to-business networking opportunities for tourist partners and facilitating business summits as well as supporting a range of marketing campaigns.

Juha Järvinen, the airline’s chief commercial officer, said: “The objectives of the tourism year are in line with the objectives of Finnair.

“Finnair was the first Western European airline to fly non-stop 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.”

Juha Järvinen of Finnair

Finnair will add a seventh city in Greater China to its network in May 2018, with a direct year-round route to Nanjing. The carrier also flies to Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Xian and Chongqing.

Mikko Turtiainen, vice president for Global Sales at Finnair, said: “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.”
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.

Järvinen added: “We place 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.”

Finnair will also become the first European airline to join as a member to the Welcome Chinese programme in 2018.

“With the EU China Tourism Year, this is the perfect time to join the Welcome Chinese programme,” added Turtiainen. “Finnair is looking forward to the cooperation strengthening the Finnair brand and increasing knowledge of services that Finnair offer the Chinese traveller.”