Finnair, the century-old airline that reached Tokyo by flying over the North Pole
In 1983 a Finnish DC-10 with extra fuel tanks took off from Helsinki, headed north over the pole and came down through the Bering Strait to Tokyo, the first non-stop flight from Western Europe to Japan. Almost four decades later, Finnair found itself dusting off that polar route again.
The airline began in 1923 as Aero O/Y, founded by consul Bruno Lucander, which is why its code is still AY. The German aircraft maker Junkers supplied planes and technical help in return for half the shares. Its first flight, on 20 March 1924, carried passengers from Helsinki to Tallinn in a Junkers F.13 on floats, and seaplanes remained in use until 1936, when Finland built its first aerodromes.
The Second World War was hard: the air force took half the fleet, and during the Winter War of 1939 and 1940 an estimated half of those flying in from towns outside Helsinki were evacuee children bound for Sweden. The state took a majority stake in 1946 to push longer routes, the Finnair brand appeared in 1953, jets arrived with Caravelles in 1961 and a service to New York opened on 15 May 1969.
The Tokyo flight was a workaround. Soviet airspace was off limits for the route, so most carriers stopped in Moscow or Anchorage. Flying over the pole took Finnair 13 hours, the same as a Moscow stopover and faster than the Anchorage option at up to 16, giving it an edge until Soviet regulators opened a direct path to rivals in 1986. Finnair also became the first Western European airline to fly non-stop to China, to Beijing in 1988, and launched the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 in 1990.
It joined the Oneworld alliance in 1999 and has faced repeated labour disputes as budget carriers squeezed costs. When Russian airspace closed in 2022, a flight to Tokyo on 9 March again went via the North Pole. The Finnish state owns 55.68% and must keep at least 50.10%. Now headquartered in a seven-storey building at Helsinki Airport, the airline reaches over 80 destinations and requires cabin crew to wear gloves for takeoff and landing.
Source: Finnair
