Finnair, Japan Airlines expand code-sharing to northern Europe

Finnair, the largest airline of Finland and the nation’s flag carrier, and Japan Airlines (JAL), one of the biggest airline operators in Asia, will start code-share cooperation on Finnair flights between Finland and Japan from June 3, 2008.

Finnair, with its main hub at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, Finland, and Japan Airlines, based in Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan, are both members of the Oneworld alliance.

Japan Airlines, which operates scheduled and non-scheduled international and domestic services, has its main bases at Narita International Airport and Tokyo International Airport, Tokyo.

Japan Airlines joined the Oneworld alliance in April 2007.

Japan Airlines and Finnair had first started code-sharing on flights on December 19, 2005. The two airlines already code-share on daily intra-Europe round-trip flights operated by Finnair between Helsinki and Amsterdam and Frankfurt; and on Japan domestic routes operated by Japan Airlines serving the cities of Fukuoka, Nagoya, Osaka, Tokyo and Sapporo.

Once the new code-share arrangement on Finnair flights between Finland and Japan takes effect, Japan Airlines can make reservations and sell tickets with its own flight number on Finnair-operated flights to and from Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. Besides, Japan Airlines’ flight number will be added to Finnair flights to and from Stockholm (Sweden), Copenhagen (Denmark) and Oslo (Norway) that connect with Finnair’s Helsinki-Japan routes.

Finnair can sell tickets with its own flight number to Japan Airlines flights operated to and from Fukuoka, Sapporo and Tokyo’s Haneda airport as connections to Finnair’s own Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya flights.

Japan Airlines, on its part, can sell tickets with a Japan Airlines flight number to Finnair flights from Amsterdam and Frankfurt to Helsinki (and vice-versa) as a connection to its own flights between Tokyo and Europe.

The other European cities covered by Japan Airlines’ network, including code-shares, are: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Helsinki, London, Lyons, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, Munich, Nice, Rome, Paris, Prague, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Vienna, Warsaw, and Zurich.

One additional city – Oslo – will be added to Japan Airlines’ Europe network when the new code-share agreement comes into effect – which would mean that Japan Airlines, including code-shares, will connect Japan to a total of 25 cities in Europe on 37 routings.

Also, frequent-flyer customers of both Finnair and Japan Airlines can earn and burn points on each other’s flights.

Reservations for the new code-share services start on May 22, 2008.

The website finchannel.com quoted Mika Perho, senior vice-president (commercial division) of Finnair, as commenting on the latest code-share: “We are very happy to code-share with Japan Airlines on our flights between Finland and Japan and to Scandinavia. Japan Airlines is the leading airline in Asia-Pacific region, and we believe that the new cooperation will significantly increase travelling from Japan to Finland and via Finland to other parts of Northern Europe.”