newstodate.aero

Oct 04, 2023 (newstodate): Flights from Helsinki to Busan, South Korea's second-largest city, have long been on Finnair's wishing-list.
    As the first airline to fly non-stop to South Korea from Northern Europe, Finnair launched flights from Helsinki to Seoul on June 2008, and the opening of flights to Busan as the airline's second Korean destination were aired already in 2017.
   By that time, only seven weekly rotations were allowed under the existing air services agreement between Finland and South Korea.
   In 2019, talks in Helsinki between Finland' president and the visiting president of South Korea opened up prospects for new developments in aviation between the two markets, resulting in an MoU.
   The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency announced that operating authorizations for air services between Finland and the Republic of Korea on the route Helsinki-Busan were now available, with Finnair's application to be at hand on July 2, 2019.
   According to the MoU, the route would be opened with three weekly rotations between Helsinki and Busan Gimhae International Airport as the Korean airport's first direct non-stop air link to Europe.
   Finnair announced the launch of flights between Helsinki and Busan on March 30, 2020, with three weekly rotations with Airbus A350 aircraft during the Summer 2020 program.
   Then came the Corona pandemic, abrogating the process.
   Finnair has not, however, given up hopes for reviving the plans for flights to Busan..
   Because of the effects from corona pandemic and now also the disruptions to air traffic caused by Russia's war on Ukraine, Finnair's 50/50 split between short and long haul traffic in pre-Covid 2019 is now down to 65/35, according to media information.