Taiwan on Thursday signed an air service agreement with Finland in Helsinki, the nation’s first flight service deal with a Nordic country, the Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday.
The agreement, which allows the Taiwanese and Finnish governments to appoint multiple companies to operate up to 14 round-trip passenger flights and cargo services per week, was signed by CAA Director-General Ho Shu-ping (何淑萍) and her Finnish counterpart, Jari Pontinen, the agency said.
The signing of the air service agreement was years in the making and a milestone in the development of aviation for Taiwan and Finland, the agency said.
Photo coutesy of the Civil Aviation Administration via CNA
China Airlines, EVA Airways and Starlux Airlines sent officials to join Ho in the trip to Finland, it said.
Prior to the signing of the agreement with Finland, Taiwan had signed such bilateral deals with 57 countries or areas, with direct air services to 34 of them, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said in a report submitted to the legislature in October last year.
Finnair is Finland’s main international carrier, which once advertised itself as one of the fastest services between Asia and Europe via Helsinki before the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to the “shortcut” it took over Russia.
However, Russia’s closure of its airspace to EU members, including Finland, in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine, has led to longer flight time for Finnair, the carrier said in a statement on March 2022.
Finnair plans to operate direct passenger services to several Asian destinations near Taiwan, including Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore and Shanghai, this summer, its Web site says.
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