Finnair began flying non-stop from Helsinki to Los Angeles March 31, 2019, marking the fifth U.S. destination for the European airline and another convenient option for West Coast fliers to travel to Europe.
The new service between Los Angeles and Helsinki will take place three times weekly. This is the first U.S. route for Finnair to be regularly operated by an Airbus A350 aircraft. In addition to Los Angeles, the airline flies year-round to New York JFK, and seasonally to Chicago O’Hare, Miami, and San Francisco. Flights to Chicago and San Francisco will resume for this year in April, and as of May, the airline will add a fourth weekly frequency on its route to San Francisco.
“We are very happy to expand our North American network and fly a new route to Los Angeles with our Airbus A350,” said Juha Järvinen, Finnair’s Chief Commercial Officer. “We opened our route to San Francisco two years ago with tremendous success, proving that California and the West Coast are very popular with our customers. We are confident that this new route to Los Angeles will garner the same level of interest moving forward.”
Flight Times
Finnair flight AY 1 will depart Helsinki at 4:40pm and arrive at 5:40pm the same day on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. The flight time is 11 hours.
Finnair flight AY 2 will depart Los Angeles at 7:30pm on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, and arrive the following day at 4:05pm. The flight time in this direction is 10 hours, 35 minutes.
The launch of this route is good news for travelers for a number of reasons. Finnair was the first European carrier to operate the next-generation Airbus A350. The plane, with its array of jetlag-fighting features including better cabin pressurization and humidity as well as decreased engine noise, will provide a comfortable new travel experience from the West Coast to Europe.
The flight timing to Helsinki is calibrated to make a full night of sleep possible while still arriving in time for activities or an onward connection to one of Finnair’s 100-plus European destinations. In the opposite, travelers can connect from elsewhere in Europe, or take advantage of nearly a full day out in Helsinki before heading to the airport, and still arrive in Los Angeles in time for dinner.
Helsinki’s airport also boasts an impressive 78.7% on-time performance rate, well above those of other European hubs such as Amsterdam Schipol, Frankfurt, London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle. That means plans involving connections are less likely to go awry.
Cabin Comfort
Finnair’s A350s are configured with three sections: business class, economy comfort and economy sections. There are a total of 297 seats on board.
The business-class section includes 46 seats in two cabins. The first comprises eight rows of four seats each, laid out in the popular reverse-herringbone 1 – 2 – 1 pattern. The second, smaller cabin has just three rows on each side of the aircraft, and four rows running down the middle. Each seat is 21 inches wide, reclines to a fully lie-flat bed 78-81 inches long, and has a 16-inch HD entertainment screen.
The finishes are sleek and simple – truly Nordic in style, including brightly patterned pillows and linens by Marimekko, and meals served on Marimekko porcelain china with Iittala crystal.
Speaking of Marimekko, the airline recently announced it would be offering updated business-class amenities in partnership with the iconic Finnish design house. Passengers will find new sleep linens featuring the brand’s classic Kaivo print and amenity kits with four different vintage designs by Marimekko’s longtime style director, Maija Isola. They will be stocked with organic Swedish L:A Bruket skincare products and improved eye masks and earplugs.
“We wanted to introduce more patterns more often, so there is something new and fresh for our frequent fliers,” said David Kondo, Head of Cabin Interior Development at Finnair. “The new kits have also been sized so they can live on after the flight for a variety of uses.”
The kits were created with an eye toward environmental consciousness, too. For instance, the toothbrush included is made from cornstarch bio-plastic, and plastic wrappings for the individual components have been replaced with cardboard and wax paper instead. The airline’s new business-class slippers are even made from recycled plastic bottles. Finnair estimates these policies it will reduce its plastic waste by 4,500 kilograms (9,921lbs) per year.
The L:A Bruket products, which passengers will also find in the airline’s lounges, include almond-coconut lip cream, chamomile-lavender facial hydrator and cucumber-mint and lemongrass-grapefruit scents.
"Finnair and L:A Bruket are both Nordic brands that value sustainability,” said Kondo. “We view this partnership as a great initiative to increase the appeal of our amenity kit. We're also trying to connect the lounge and in-flight experience more and more for our customers, and offering organic and natural L:A Bruket products both on the ground and in the air is a great step in that direction."
In economy, seats are arranged in a 3 – 3 – 3 pattern and are 18 inches wide with 31 inches of pitch. Their entertainment screens are 11 inches wide. The aircraft also has 43 of Finnair’s roomier Economy Comfort seats aboard, each of which is essentially an economy seat with four extra inches of legroom, simple amenity kits, and priority boarding privileges.
Airfares and Awards
Over the next few months, round-trip airfares from Los Angeles to Helsinki start at $691 in economy, or $6,750 in business class, though those might go down as transatlantic competition heats up during the summer high season.
Fliers can also use either American Airlines AAdvantage or Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles to book awards on Finnair. American Airlines will charge 30,000 miles each direction in economy, or 57,500 in business class between the U.S. and Europe. Alaska Airlines charges 30,000 miles each way in economy, or 70,000 for business class.
The launch of Finnair’s non-stop service between Los Angeles and Helsinki marks an exciting new connection between the West Coast of the U.S. and Europe, and gives fliers another excellent option for traveling to Finland or connecting to the rest of the continent.
Disclosure: The author was invited to participate in the inaugural flight on this route by Finnair, but all opinions expressed are entirely his own.
