PUBLIC SECTOR IN THE UNITED KINGDOM OPTS FOR FINNAIR

(Warsaw 9.9.2009) Finnair has won a landmark deal with the UK public sector to be the official airline for flights from London Heathrow to Osaka Japan and flights between Manchester and Helsinki.

Finnair will fly public sector staff and officials from London Heathrow to Osaka and from Manchester to Helsinki until 2011, with an option of adding an additional year to the agreement.

This is the first time Finnair has been awarded a deal with the UK government.

"Besides a vote of confidence for Finnair, I see this agreement as a significant sign of our Asia strategy working," says Juhani Nuoramo, Finnair’s Sales Director for Poland. “While we offer the fastest connection from the UK to Osaka, the same equally applies to flights from Warsaw to several key Asian destinations such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Nagoya and Seoul”, Nuoramo continues.

The UK deal is supportive to the long term goal of Finnair’s scheduled traffic to grow in services between Europe and Asia, utilizing Helsinki as a geographically and logistically ideal transit location.

“Besides cost and speed, I believe that the efficiency of the Helsinki-Vantaa airport and Finnair’s modern aircraft fleet were also important factors in decision making”, Nuoramo concludes.  

For more information, please contact:

Radoslaw Podhorecki tel. +48-601-370 178 or +48 22 657 00 17

Finnair Media Desk tel. +358 9 818 4020 or media.desk@finnair.com

http://feel.finnair.com

Photo bank www.finnair.com/gallery

Finnair Group website www.finnairgroup.com

via.Helsinki www.viahelsinki.com