Finnair to open Stockholm base in 4Q21 for longhaul ops

Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa) has announced it will launch three intercontinental routes from Stockholm Arlanda, its first such flights from an airport other than Helsinki Vantaa, in the Winter 2021/22 season.

The Finnish flag carrier plans to connect the Swedish capital with:

• Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (5x weekly starting on October 22, increasing to daily as of November 28),
• Phuket (weekly starting on October 24, increasing gradually to 3x weekly as of November 30), and
• Miami Int’l (2x weekly starting on October 29, increasing to 4x weekly as of November 29).

All flights will be operated with A350-900s. In order to operate the full schedule commencing in late November, Finnair will deploy three aircraft of the type to the Swedish capital gateway The airline operates a total of sixteen A350-900s. Its widebody fleet also comprises eight A330-300s, the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows. Out of the three destinations, Finnair currently serves only Bangkok out of Helsinki Vantaa. It plans to restart services from its main base to Miami in early November and to Phuket at a thus far undisclosed date.

Thailand is gradually reopening its tourist hotspots to foreign fully vaccinated tourists. Although the European Union largely permits travel from the US for vaccinated persons, the US continues to ban non-essential travel from the bloc.

While at the time of Finnair’s announcement Arlanda had no other confirmed connections to any of the three destinations, just a few hours after the Finnish carrier’s release, SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) announced plans to restart all of its pre-pandemic routes from Arlanda, Copenhagen Kastrup, and Oslo Gardermoen to the United States during October 2021. The Arlanda-Miami route will restart on October 1 and will operate 3x weekly.