Now that Japan is reopening in Asia and welcoming back tourists and business travelers pretty much in the same conditions like back in 2019, I had a look at flight times from Europe to Tokyo from different EU cities which have direct links to NRT/HND at the moment.

Despite the pandemic restrictions being eased from most of the countries around the world, this corridor from Europe to North Asia will still remain complicated for carriers which aren't allowed to overfly Russia.

Finnair is undoubtedly the carrier most affected by this situation. Before pandemic, and before the conflict in Ukraine, AY was the absolute leader in connections from Europe and Helsinki to Japan serving several markets year-round: Tokyo Narita, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Sapporo and Haneda.

This winter AY only has scheduled Tokyo -NRT until the end of October, then it switches to HND, daily-. Japan Airlines serves HEL 5x/w this winter, also linking HEL to HND. Finnair will serve ICN 6x/w also this winter, which is its second and only other destination in North-East Asia.

My point is... does it make much sense for Finnair to keep their connections to these destinations not being able to offer the cheapest/fastest/most convenient connection? HEL-HND is at its "shortest version" at the moment 13 hours. You can fly LHR-TYO (most western "EU point" with direct link to Japan now) in 13h:50min, FRA-HND in less than 13hours.

HEL-NRT 13:00H
HEL-HND 13:30H 14:15H* different carriers on the route
VIE-NRT 12:20H
WAW-NRT 12:35H
MUC-HND 12:30H
LHR-HND 13:50H 14:05H* different carriers on the route
FRA-HND 12:50H 13H* different carriers on the route
FRA-NRT 13:30H
CDG-NRT 13:20H
CDG-HND 13:15H 13:30H* different carriers on the route
AMS-NRT 13:15H
ZRH-NRT 13:05H
IST-HND 10:55H
DOH-NRT 09:55H

Considering these current flight times, where in Europe could be the "most convenient" hub to connect to Tokio now? VIE? WAW?

EUROPE-TOKYO CONNECTIONS VIA IST/DOH VS AY CONNECTIONS VIA HEL

If we compare EU flight times on non-direct links to Tokyo both Turkish and Qatar offer the quickest connections to TYO. CDG-TYO takes 16h50min on TK while flying direct takes 13h15min. You only save 3h35mins by flying direct now. If you, for whatever reason prefer to fly AY, CDG-TYO takes with them 19h35min. VIE-TYO is 16h15mins with Turkish vs 18h45min on Finnair. LHR-TYO is 18h20min on Qatar vs 19h05mins on Finnair.

VIE-HND VIA IST 16:15H
MUC-HND VIA IST 17:10H
MUC-NRT VIA DOH18:25H
VIE-NRT VIA DOH 18:10H
HEL-NRT VIA DOH 18:45H
HEL-HND VIA IST 18:05H
CDG-HND VIA IST 16:50H
LHR-HND VIA IST 17:05H
LHR-NRT VIA DOH 18:20H

LHR-NRT VIA HEL 19:05H
HEL-HND VIA HEL 19:35H
VIE-NRT VIA HEL 18:45H
WAW-NRT VIA HEL17:25H
MUC-HND VIA HEL19:55H
FRA-HND VIA HEL 18:50H
CDG-HND VIA HEL 19:35H

SCANDI-TOKYO CONNECTIONS AY VS TURKISH AIRLINES

When it comes to connections FROM Scandinavia to Tokyo TK is clearly the winner offering pretty much same flight time connections via IST.

ARN-HND VIA HEL 16:05H 17:40 via TK
CPH-HND VIA HEL 17:20H 17:40H via TK
RIX-HND VIA HEL 17:50H 17:45H via TK
OSL-HND VIA HEL 17:15H 18:10H via TK 18:40 via AF
GOT-HND VIA HEL 17:55H 17:50 via TK
HEL-HND VIA HEL NIL 18:05 via TK

In conclusion, I assume AY sticks to Japan offering daily flights to its capital city just hoping for some day being able to overfly Russia again and be back in its core market, but it makes little sense now to keep flying to both Japan and South Korea when AY is so unable to offer quick and efficient connections due to the big detour needed to avoid Russia.

If the price is right, passengers will still fly with AY. Lately the EU3 have some pretty sweet deals ex.Japan to North America (via EU of course), and people are more than happy to save $150 and spend 23+ hours travelling.

I suppose it doesn't make much difference as I presume Finnair is flying north around Russia, the polar route over Alaska. Other European airlines are flying south around Russia. I've looked it up and from Helsinki to Tokyo the polar route is slightly shorter. From Copenhagen the southern route is shorter, the turning point seems to be somewhere in between there.

AY73 has been actually flying both South and North around Russia depending on the day.

I guess it depends on the weather conditions of each possible flying path.

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/ay73

PatrickZ80 wrote:

I suppose it doesn't make much difference as I presume Finnair is flying north around Russia, the polar route over Alaska. Other European airlines are flying south around Russia. I've looked it up and from Helsinki to Tokyo the polar route is slightly shorter. From Copenhagen the southern route is shorter, the turning point seems to be somewhere in between there.

Indeed, right at this moment you can track AY74 heading northeast out of Tokyo to take the polar route around Russia back home. Scheduled for 11h45m, no idea where OP got their flight times from.