{"id":300049,"date":"2025-06-18T03:49:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T03:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/airline\/race-to-tokyo-jal-and-finnairs-separate-paths-from-helsinki\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T03:49:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T03:49:43","slug":"race-to-tokyo-jal-and-finnairs-separate-paths-from-helsinki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=300049","title":{"rendered":"Race to Tokyo: JAL and Finnair\u2019s separate paths from Helsinki"},"content":{"rendered":"


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When Japan Airlines<\/a> and Finnair<\/a> departed Helsinki for Tokyo-Haneda back-to-back, the race was on. The 15 June flights took opposite paths to Tokyo, with JAL heading north and taking a polar route, while Finnair tacked south. Just after take off, we wanted to see who would be the first to touch down in Tokyo.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Japan Airlines\u2019 777-300ER JA733J departed Helsinki\u2019s Vantaa Airport<\/a> at 15:56 UTC, giving it a two minute head start on Finnair\u2019s A350-900 OH-LWI. Shortly after takeoff it looked like JAL would make it to Tokyo well before Finnair. It had departed first and was taking a shorter route.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Finnair had speed and wind on its side. By mid-way through the flight AY61 was projected to arrived 45 minutes before JL48 thanks to advantageous winds, especially over the Black Sea, and the A350\u2019s overall speed advantage compared to the 777.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Even though Finnair flew 457 additional track kilometers, it managed to make it to Tokyo nearly one hour faster than JAL. Both airlines flew 4,000 kilometers further than the great circle route between the two cities, due to both carriers not using Russian airspace. At their farthest point apart, the two flights were separated by approximately 6,380 kilometers.<\/p>\n

Finnair has been particularly impacted over the past few years by the airspace restrictions. The Nordic airline\u2019s business model in large part was buoyed by its ability to quickly connect passengers between Europe and East Asia.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Why choose a different route?<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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If the southern route is so much faster, why did Japan Airlines fly north in the first place? Each airline performs a series of calculations for every flight that provides the optimal routing based on a variety of factors. Aircraft performance, weight, winds, en route weather, traffic, overflight fees, and other factors can all play into the decision to fly a particular route.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Comparing AY61 and JL48 both airlines have utilized both polar and southern routes on a regular basis. The best route for the day will always depend on weighting competing factors and choosing what works best for the airline to get its aircraft, passengers, and cargo to their destination safely.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Comparing new and old routes<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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What about compared to flights prior to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine? We flew aboard Finnair\u2019s flight to Tokyo not long after and compared the two.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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The post Race to Tokyo: JAL and Finnair\u2019s separate paths from Helsinki<\/a> appeared first on Flightradar24 Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Japan Airlines and Finnair departed Helsinki for Tokyo-Haneda back-to-back, the race was on. The 15 June flights took opposite paths to Tokyo, with JAL heading north and taking a polar route, while Finnair tacked south. Just after take off, we wanted to see who would be the first to touch down in Tokyo. Japan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":300050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12028],"tags":[132059,65558,64978,34380,132060,27827,132061,21458,8785,29751,6006],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-300049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-airline","tag-ay-fin","tag-finnairs","tag-hel","tag-helsinki","tag-hnd","tag-jal","tag-jl-jal","tag-paths","tag-race","tag-separate","tag-tokyo"],"yoast_head":"\nRace to Tokyo: JAL and Finnair\u2019s separate paths from Helsinki - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=300049\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Race to Tokyo: JAL and Finnair\u2019s separate paths from Helsinki - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Japan Airlines and Finnair departed Helsinki for Tokyo-Haneda back-to-back, the race was on. 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