30 Nov 2005

Finnair and Japan Airlines agree on code-sharing starting December

Finnair and Japan Airlines (JAL), which is currently seeking oneworld membership, have agreed to enter into a codesharing tie-up on JAL's domestic routes in Japan and on Finnair's European routes starting this December.

Finnair's code will be added to JAL's routes between Osaka and Sapporo, from Fukuoka to Osaka and Tokyo as well as from Tokyo's Haneda airport to Osaka. All these flights have connections to Finnair's routes between Osaka and Helsinki and Tokyo and Helsinki.

JAL's codes in turn will be added to Finnair's Helsinki-Amsterdam return and Helsinki-Frankfurt return routes. JAL will sell these flights as connections to its own Tokyo-Amsterdam and Tokyo-Frankfurt flights.

"In the future we will also explore possibilities to code-share on Finnair's routes to Japan and JAL's routes from Japan to other Asian destinations. Finnair currently operates two weekly flights between Helsinki and Tokyo and three weekly flights during the winter and five weekly flights during the summer between Helsinki and Osaka. In June 2006, Finnair will launch three weekly flights to Nagoya," says VP Airline Alliances and International Relations Kari Koli from Finnair.

In October this year, Japan Airlines announced its decision to seek membership in the oneworld alliance. Until then, JAL had been the only one of the world's 20 largest airlines not involved in an airline alliance. Measured in Group turnover, JAL is even larger than oneworld founding members British Airways and American Airlines.

Japan Airlines was founded in 1951. It operates some 1,140 departures and its fleet of 284 aircraft serves 206 destinations. JAL carried almost 60 million passengers last year. Its main hubs are Tokyo (Narita and Haneda) and Osaka (Kansai and Itami).

JAL is a public company with its shares listed on the Tokyo stock exchange. It reported net profits of US$281millionfor 2004, on revenues of US$20 billion. The airline has a staff of nearly 24,000.

Finnair Plc
Communications
30.11.2005

Additional information:
VP Airline Alliances and International Relations Kari Koli, tel. +358 9 818 8520