In a crowded conferen
ce room at the Helsinki airport, swarming with journalists from 20-odd countries, Allister Paterson is beaming with joy, and for a reason. Patterson, the senior vice-president, (commercial), of Finnair, the national carrier of Finland that turned 90, has many new initiatives to unveil. The airline that’s considered the fifth oldest airlines in the world with a proven track record of uninterrupted service even in the thick of winter and went on to make a mark as the safest airlines in the world with no fatal or hull-loss accidents since 1963, is clearly the pride of the Finns who are known for their efficiency.
ce room at the Helsinki airport, swarming with journalists from 20-odd countries, Allister Paterson is beaming with joy, and for a reason. Patterson, the senior vice-president, (commercial), of Finnair, the national carrier of Finland that turned 90, has many new initiatives to unveil. The airline that’s considered the fifth oldest airlines in the world with a proven track record of uninterrupted service even in the thick of winter and went on to make a mark as the safest airlines in the world with no fatal or hull-loss accidents since 1963, is clearly the pride of the Finns who are known for their efficiency.For an airline that spends over two billion euros annually to develop new ideas and emphasis on innovative experiences for customers, it comes as no surprise that it has officially joined hands with Merimekko, a renowned design house in Finland. Its Airbus 330 has been unveiled with a blue-forest lively based on the Marimekko print Metsanvaki (forest dwellers) painted on the aircraft. This aircraft will fly from Helsinki to 13 Asian destinations besides New York. Last October, a sister carrier was painted in Marimekko’s Unikko (poppy). The design collaboration with iconic Finish design and fashion ushers in a new phase as the airline will introduce textiles and tableware to its aircrafts stating May 15. Business passengers can now look forward to having their in-flight meal on pretty iconic designs besides upgrading menu by roping in two top Finnish chefs Pekka Terava and Tomi Bjorck who each own signature restaurants in Finland. The menu will be influenced by the purity of Finnish nature ingredients besides bringing in the best of modern Asian cuisine.
In a conversation, Allister Paterson tells Hoihnu Hauzel why the Asian market is becoming increasingly important for Finnair and new innovations that are on the way.
Q) On its 90th year of being in the business, what is Finnnair doing to mark this important milestone?
A) We are celebrating our long history in a number of ways: by investing in product enhancements, like the signature menus by Finnish top chefs into our business class in September, by welcoming new Airbus 321ER aircraft into our fleet, starting in September 2013, by investing into passenger comfort. We will introduce full flat seats across our aircraft. Passengers boarding on Finnair long haul flight on November 1, 2013 will get a special Finnair 90 years edition of Donald Duck. Every member of Finnair staff will also receive this special edition Donald Duck. Besides, we have also commissioned a special Finnair poster by a well-known Finnish graphic designer Erik Bruun.
Q) You mentioned the airline’s plan of expanding code-shared cooperation further with regional and international partners. Have you identified your partners?
A) Our partner for regional flying is Flybe Finland, who operates Finnair’s Embraer fleet in European traffic. We also have extensive code-share agreements with our oneworld partners, and will expand cod-eshare with new oneworld partners such as Malaysian Airlines and Sri Lankan Airlines who expand our network in Europe and Asia alike. And we have recently announced our intention to join the transatlantic joint business with Iberia, American Alliance and British Airways for traffic between North America and Europe.
Q) Has the airline’s partnership with Marikekka which produced fancy and fashionable products for the airline created any new revenue for the airline? Please elaborate this further.
A) This cooperation is first and foremost about enhancing the customer experience on board, and increasing visibility especially in the growing Asian markets, where both Finnair and Marimekko are seeking to expand their business. There are commercial components as well – we have Marimekko design items in in-flight sales as well as in the FinnairPlusShop. It is hard to isolate the profit impact of one service element; instead it adds to the total customer experience which we think increases our preference and ultimately our share of passengers.
Q) You spoke briefly about the efficiency and preciseness of Fin culture. In what way does the efficiency of the Fin culture influence the functioning of the airline?
Q) The efficiency and focus on functionality is most visible in our approach to operational quality and safety. Safety, punctuality and reliability are highly valued in the Finnish culture, and at Finnair. Our staff take pride in the quality of flight operations at Finnair. For example, we have the daily score on punctuality of Finnair flights on our intranet front page so that everyone can see where we stand, and people do follow this closely. On May 7 at 20:00 we had flown 217 flights that day, and the punctuality score was 97.7. In my view this is a key advantage of Finnair, as time is money in travel.
Q) How important is the Asian market, and in particular India, for the airline?
A) Already in the 1980s, Finnair realized that its home market Finland, with only around 5 million inhabitants, was too small a home market. Based on the favourable geographic location of our Helsinki Hub, ever since then we have focused on creating the best possible operations for Europe-Asia travel. We offer short and fast connections from 13 destinations to around 50 European destinations via Helsinki. In Q1 2013, Asia comprised about 40 per cent of our passenger revenue, and Asia is naturally a key for also our cargo operations. We intend to double the revenue of our Asian operations by 2020, by opening new routes and increasing frequencies to our current destinations. In 2011, we opened the Singapore route, in 2012 the Chongqing route and this year we start seasonal operations to Hanoi in Vietnam and Xi’an in China. We normally run five to six weekly frequencies from Delhi to Helsinki. We value our Asian customers, and want to ensure they get service in their own language as well, so we have local cabin crew in most of our Asian routes.
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