Due to the spread of the new coronavirus in China, Finnair has announced it is planning to cancel all of its flights to mainland areas of the Asian country from 6-29 February.
Finland's national airline said it reached its decision after carrying out a "thorough analysis of all currently available information on the coronavirus and its impacts on air travel to and from China."
Finnair is also cancelling flights to Guangzhou from 5 February-29 March. A company statement noted that the firm will analyse the coronavirus situation in order to make further decisions about its operations to and from China after 29 February.
Saying that the health and well being of its customers is a top priority, the airline added it would continue shuttling passengers between its Helsinki hub and mainland China destinations until 6 February.
The company's COO, Jaakko Schildt said that in order to ensure the health of passengers and crew members, the company is following advice and instructions from health authorities and has also taken "additional measures."
"Our customers who are currently traveling want to return home to Europe and China, and we also want to bring our employees home to their respective bases in Finland and China. These flights are necessary with a view to the number of customers we have in Europe and China and the limited availability of alternative flights at the moment," Schildt said in the statement.
On Thursday, the company removed all February and March flights to and from its mainland Chinese destinations from its reservation system.
At this time of year the airline normally operates 35 return flights from Helsinki to Greater China, including: Hong Kong, Beijing Capital Airport, Beijing Daxing Airport, Shanghai, Nanjing and Guangzhou, according to the company.
