Finnair is making its seasonal Sapporo route as a permanent year-round destination as part of its strategy of sustainable profitable growth.

The flag carrier of Finland said it will fly between Helsinki, Finland and Sapporo in Hokkaido, Japan with an Airbus A330 aircraft twice a week year-round from December 15, making it the only European airline to operate direct scheduled flights between Sapporo and Europe.

"Flights to Sapporo are operated in the winter season on with departures from Helsinki on Sundays and Thursdays, and departures from Sapporo on Mondays and Fridays. In the summer season, the operating days are Sundays and Wednesdays from Helsinki and Mondays and Thursdays from Sapporo," the airline announced, noting that the flight time is approximately nine hours.

Finnair said Sapporo is its fifth destination in Japan, in addition to Tokyo Narita, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka.

As announced earlier, Finnair will also open a direct daily route to Tokyo's Haneda Airport as of March 2020. The new frequencies to and from Haneda will be in addition to Finnair’s daily flights to Tokyo’s Narita Airport.  

“Adding Sapporo to our network is very exciting,” says Christian Lesjak, senior vice president, network and resource management. “Japan is Finnair's largest market outside our home market Finland, and with five key Japanese cities in our network, we are now the largest European airline flying to Japan.”

Finnair will also add capacity to Osaka in Japan by adding two weekly frequencies on the route starting as of the start of the 2020 summer season. The total number of Finnair's weekly flights on the route will thus increase to 12.

Both Sapporo and Osaka routes are operated in codeshare with Finnair's long-standing partner Japan Airlines.