Helsinki Airport greets first flight from central China's Zhengzhou

The first flight from Zhengzhou, the capital of central China's Henan province, arrived at Helsinki Airport on Monday, announced the Finnish airport operator Finavia in a press release.

Finavia arranged a water-greeting ceremony for the aircraft. The ceremony is an international tradition at airports in connection with new route opening, said Finavia.

The air route is operated by China's Juneyao Airlines on Mondays. According to Finavia, Helsinki is Juneyao Air's major destination in Europe. Currently, in addition to the Zhengzhou route, the airline also flies from eastern China's Shanghai to Helsinki.

"The new connection strengthens Helsinki as a significant hub for Asian flights and is also an important opening for the future. At the same time, it also supports Finland's export efforts and security of supply," said Petri Vuori, vice president and director of sales and route development at Finavia, in the press release.

Founded in 2005 as a subsidiary of Shanghai JuneYao Group, Juneyao Air operates both domestic and international services mainly from two airports, Shanghai Hongqiao and Shanghai Pudong.

Juneyao Air launched its direct flight from Shanghai to Helsinki in June 2019. It's the first China-Finland air route operated by a Chinese private airline.

In April 2020, Juneyao Air and the Finnish national carrier Finnair signed a Letter of Intent to deepen their cooperation between China and Europe, aiming to establish a joint venture on the Helsinki-Shanghai route.