nordic

I think it was in the Sunday Helsingin Sanomat last weekend. The CEO said that there has been numerous requests to reinstate flights to California (San Francisco was mentioned but Los Angeles might be more appropriate). He said that once the relations with Iran would be OK Helsinki would be ideal for Teheran-California flights. He also mentioned that many flights from the Middle East to California fly over Finland. Who knows? I would be more interested in the India/Bangkok East Coast US/Canada flights. AY once had the second fastest flight BOM-JFK.

Andaman

LAX-HEL-IKA looks good on a great circle map, ORD-HEL-IKA almost perfect.

http://www.gcmap.com/map?P=lax-hel-i...X=540x540&PM=*

kauppias

A AY HEL-LAX would be VERY welcome! ^^^^^^

SK run both LAX and SFO so it would be great to be able to fly to the west coast directly skipping LHR/CDG etc... Of course AA would be preferred but I doubt we will see a AA plane again at HEL as long as the JV lives

warakorn

IKA-HEL on a narrowbody, without IFE and with tight pitch (and no real biz class) and BOB - thanks, but no thanks.

QR/EK/EY is clearly the better alternative for that.

intuition

Iran is geographically situated "right" for AY to move in, as seen in the gcmap pic. And might also be in a better marketing position than say the ME3. However, Iran air has ordered a lot of new aircraft and announced their interest in adding North American destinations. So it might be a question of how gets their stuff together first.

warakorn

How is a Finnair narrowbody better in terms of marketing than a ME3 widebody?

intuition

The Finnair brand might be in a better position on the Iranian market than any brand from Middle East due to geopolitical facts.

Widebody vs narrowbody is a non-issue when we are talking about marketing and for the majority of seat sales. I have nerver heard of anyone (outside FT) talking about a particular plane as a base for their buying decisions.

WilcoRoger

HEL-IKA is exactly the same distance as HEL-LIS and much shorter (by 800-900 miles) than HEL-TFN or HEL-DXB (which are also flown by narrowbodies) - and no backtracking to the UAE

warakorn

I do not agree with that. Emirates has established a certain marketing message - providing good food, good entertainment and modern planes. Lots of people know and believe that.

Yes, most pax do not care what plane type is operating a route.
However, A (narrowbody) AY plane is something completely different than an EK plane.

I give you another hint:
Take TLV to North America: Most travellers, who fly often between TLV and North America (esp. the biz pax), know what kind of comfort and service most European airlines (e.g. LH, BA, LX, AF and co) are offering on the Europe-TLV service.

intuition

I am not claiming EK has a bad product and that Finnair has a better one.

I am however claiming that airlines from GCC might have a weaker appeal on the iranian public than AY might have. It has nothing to do with the value proposition but with stuff bringing us into OMNI-land and I will not discuss this any further.

I am maintaining that widebody or narrowbody has very little to do with purchasing decisions in most cases. Frankly, what is the decisive difference sitting in a 9-abreast (or 10-abreast) widebody and sitting in a 6-abreast narrowbody?
Specifically, in the eyes of average-joe buying a ticket to go to see his relative who emigrated 30 years ago?


A quick search on current offerings ex IKA shows EK is certainly not competing on price. They are undercut by BA, LH, EY, sometimes by 50%. So while they may have established the message of "providing good food, good entertainment and modern planes" and are able to charge high prices, I am suggesting that such a strategy is not what is needed to appeal to the Iranian masses. But that is just my two cents.

warakorn

Yes, I concurr with you on the geopolitical aspect.

But even LH and BA provide a longhaul product (with free food, entertainment, real biz class) on LHR/FRA-IKA.

With Finnair, I am almost 100% certain that they will deploy a narrowbody on HEL-IKA.
For those people in business class on a North America - Iran ticket, that should be a no-go; A no go, because EK, BA, LH and co offer a real biz product all the way.

Courmisch

The majority of customers are driven by price, or trade-offs between price and schedule. Very few customers care about the type of plane - not that it matters all that much in economy cabin anyway.

I don't know that Finnair will serve IKA. But it could make sense.

WilcoRoger

If they could fill the plane, one of the old A34x's might get a new lease on life flying to IKA

remymartin

Let's not forget even some narrowbody aircraft have IFE - e.g. Ex-bmi BA midhaul a321, some Qr and some Aa.

lkrt

And one operating them ex-HEL is TK!