Punctuality and purpose drive the staff and services of Finnair, with the company concentrating on its core aim of connecting Asia and Europe via Helsinki. As the flag carrier and largest airline of Finland, Finnair is widely considered to be one of the safest and most dependable airlines in the world.
Finnair CEO Pekka Vauramo spoke to The CEO Magazine about the companys dedication to ensuring smooth and seamless connections for the worlds travellers.
My background is in industrial heavy machinery. Ive spent a lot of time in Asia over the years and thats maybe one reason why I joined Finnair and why I was selected for the role. I was in Hong Kong and China from 1989 to the end of 1993. I then returned to Hong Kong for a few years before coming to Finnair.
In a way, Hong Kong is the heart of Asia. Its definitely the heart of industrial aviation in that part of the world. Without air connectivity, Hong Kong wouldnt be what it is today.
Finnair has had an Asian strategy for a long time now. It was more than 20 years ago that Asian traffic started to become the strategic focus of the company. Finnair used to fly to Tokyo once a week in 1983. Now we have more than 80 flights per week to 13 Asian megacities. The growth has been phenomenal. We see that growth continuing in the future. Japan is a very important market for us. China is also increasingly more important for us.
Travel across Asia is growing faster than anywhere else in the world and we believe that we can contribute to that market, due to our geographical location here in Helsinki, which happens to be situated more or less on a straight line between dozens of key city pairs in Asia and Europe.