AY has quite an impressive Asia-dedicated Arr/Dep bank out of HEL, connecting into its European network.
I've used it quite a bit in the past, until AA took about 100k miles away from me - when I stopped flying them all together.
It was always good from an operational/timetable point of view. And HEL-non-Shenghen wasn't that bad. It's just that some of AY's planes were either too old, too crampy, or outright unsafe (like the MD-11). Certainly not up to the Japanese standards... more like Sub-continental... or even more like Ryanair. Really cramped, no IFE, etc.
I believe in the meantime they've overhauled and expanded their fleet though, with further Asian expansion in the works.
Problem is, AY are really weak in Japan.
They've only just started to increase some of their frequencies.
And apparently they're now applying for HND-slots indeed...
Maybe they could buy some from JAL??
FYI:
http://www.tokyotomo.com/article/en/...o-from-haneda/
During the press briefing, Finnair also revealed that it is eager to inaugurate a new service from Tokyo’s Haneda airport as part of its future business strategy.
Commenting on the strategy, Nagahara said that the airline endeavors to realize to double its daily flight operation from Tokyo after 2011 as soon as possible with an eye on a service also from Haneda.
However, as long as serving destinations beyond Helsinki continues to be a pillar of the airline’s business strategy, it would not operate from Haneda airport, even if the slots at Haneda are granted after the aviation talks between Japan and Finland, unless the slots are secured for take-off and landing during the morning.
Should it not be the case, Finnair would prefer to double its daily flight frequency from Narita International Airport when the departure and arrival slots are expanded there.
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