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Finnair launching low-emission ‘air-bus’ on domestic routes
Finnair is to launch a new ‘air-bus’ service to help reduce emissions on two short domestic routes.
The new bus connections will link the cities of Turku and Tampere in Southern Finland, following Finnair’s suspension of flights on the routes to Helsinki in spring 2020 during the pandemic.
Finnair will resume flights on the routes – which are among the shortest in the Finnair network and operated by energy-efficient ATR aircraft – in spring 2022 following the increase in international travel.
But the Finnish flag carrier will be complementing the flights with a new branded ‘air-bus’ service for the airline’s customers to help reduce their CO2 footprints.
The airline aims to offer an alternative means of travel between the two cities and the Finnish capital and eventually encourage customers to switch to more emission-friendly buses, particularly on mid-day services which typically have a lower load factor.
As an added incentive, Finnair will guarantee customers an onward connection to their chosen booked destination on their next flight, even if their twice-daily connecting bus service suffers a delay.
Perttu Jolma, Finnair VP, Traffic Planning, said: "Turku and Tampere are an important part of our network and we want to offer travellers the opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint by switching to a bus connection.
"Travelling on these routes focuses on customers transferring to international flights, and we want to continue to offer the best range of connections to customers in the regions.
"Combining different modes of transport is an important tool in reducing carbon emissions from transport."
The move by Finnair to introduce intermodality is part of a growing trend by airlines looking to reduce their carbon emissions and part of a wider debate in Europe on how to limit the number of short-haul flights.
It is also part of the airline’s long-term commitment to reduce its net emissions by 50% by the end of 2025, from the 2019 baseline.
While the scheduled time for flights to Turku and Tampere is just 35 minutes, the actual flight time is a mere 25 minutes.
Finnair bus connection tickets will go on sale later in the spring of 2022 and will only be sold together with connecting flights.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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