China Southern Airlines is opening its first route to Finland, with a service between Beijing Daxing and Helsinki.
The three-times weekly service will commence on 29 March.
China Southern will use Boeing 787-9s on the sector, and will increase frequency to daily from 20 June.
Finnish airport operator Finavia says the carrier will restore a link to the Chinese capital absent for five years.
While Finnair had served Beijing – part of its strategic positioning of Helsinki as a gateway to Asian destinations – it withdrew during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Finnair has since struggled to re-establish its Asian network owing to the closure of Russian airspace to European airlines since the outbreak of the Ukrainian conflict.
Chinese carriers, and airlines from certain other countries, have not been affected the airspace closure. Emirates has recently stated that it will open a Helsinki route, highlighting the options for Asia-Pacific access via Dubai.
Finavia senior vice-president of route development Petri Vuori says the China Southern services will “mark the first time” the carrier – which flies to Paris, Frankfurt, London and several other European cities – has operated to the Nordic region.
