Flight time cut by half - Finnair Launches Flights to Yekaterinburg

Finnair begins flights from Helsinki to the city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals region of Russia at the beginning of September. The route is to be served three times a week with Airbus A319 aircraft. The flight time will be just three hours, with excellent connections in both directions. “The flight time from Helsinki to Yekaterinburg is half that of any other connection via Western Europe,” says Finnair’s Sales director in Russia, Vesa Vilkkula. “There are fast connections in both directions to about 40 Europe destinations and especially to Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo. “The opening route also serves our long-haul connections to North America and Asia as well as growing demand for domestic traffic to Rovaniemi, Kittilä and Kuusamo in northern Finland,” says Vilkkula. Yekaterinburg is in the heart of the Ural region and has good connections to the whole region of Siberia. There are also many European companies represented in this historical city and commercial relations with the West have been lively for some years. The route operates from Helsinki on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The flights depart at 23.50 in the evening and arrive at 5.55 local time. From Yekaterinburg, flights depart on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 6.50, arriving at Helsinki at 7.00 local time. Finnair already flies regularly to Moscow and St Petersburg in Russia. Finnair serves Moscow in cooperation with Aeroflot four times daily. St Petersburg is served 20 times a week in cooperation with the airline Rossiya. Finnair Plc Communications 9.5.2008 Additional information: Vesa Vilkkula, director, tel. +7 985 724 7363 Finnair Media Desk, tel. +358 9 818 4020 or comms[a]finnair.com Finnair Group website: www.finnair.com/group via.Helsinki: www.viahelsinki.com Finnair images: www.finnair.com/gallery Press release updates: http://www.finnairgroup.com/mediaen/mediaen_7_3.html