Nordic carrier Finnair is to inaugurate a twice daily Helsinki – Lyon service from April 2, 2012. The link to France’s second-largest city, located at the convergence of the Rhône and Saône rivers, will be operated using an Embraer 190 with flights in the morning and evening for both business and leisure traffic.

Finnair expects to secure a mix of point-to-point and transfer traffic, with a high proportion of the latter expected to connect on to its expanding Asian network. “For passengers travelling from Asia, Finnair offers very fast connections to a comprehensive European route network that will be further enhanced with the addition of Lyon,” said Ville Iho, Senior Vice President, Operations, Finnair.

An estimated 14,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route in the past year, around half of these flying with Lufthansa via Frankfurt or Munich. Finnair already offers almost 40 flights per week between Helsinki and France with an up to five times daily link to Paris CDG and three flights per week to Nice.

Finnair carried an estimated 159,000 passengers between the two countries in the past year, a 31.4 per cent share of the total traffic. Its closest rival was easyJet with a 17.8 per cent share although the low-cost carrier suspended its Helsinki – Paris CDG route earlier this year.

Schedule:

AY923 HEL0750 – 1005LYS E90 D
AY925 HEL1600 – 1810LYS E90 D
AY924 LYS1045 – 1455HEL E90 D
AY926 LYS1850 – 2300HEL E90 D