When standing in Helsinki (as one does), a glance east once provided a key to the airline’s long history. The many contrails from the many flights between Europe and Asia once lined the skies overhead, now limited to a few Russian and Chinese carriers. The strategic positioning of Finnair’s HEL hub was obvious.

Since 2022 and the closure of Russian airspace, the once strategic opportunity has turned into a new obstacle - a bit of a modern Iron Curtain, as it were.

And you would be forgiven for thinking that revoked access to Russian airspace affected half of the widebody fleet. Indeed, had you asked us before running the numbers, our estimate would have been about half as well.

The estimate is logical. For a balanced hub such as HEL, you’d expect the restriction of the eastern half of the map to impact half of the widebody capacity. But it’s not 50%.

Try 82%.

Finnair had very efficiently connected Europe to the East. The western portion of that balanced network was disproportionately operated by narrowbody aircraft to the many close destinations of Europe. Eastbound connections, however, disproportionately relied on the long-haul widebody to reach East and Southeast Asia.

The mixed A330 and A350 fleet posed an immediate problem for the airline. Flights around the new Iron Curtain were possible, but with quite the expensive detour. For the A350, the extended flights were still possible, but the A330 posed a problem.

For Finnair, east was no longer a viable direction for the east-west airline, at least not without a healthy dose of north or south first.

And yet, the airline adapted. New widebody markets were added to the west, particularly into North America, where the A330s would have no problem reaching. India was still offered only a marginal detour around Russia, though still a detour.

The A350s were prioritized to the newly artificially longer East and Southeast Asian markets. As of 2026, the airline remains heavily reliant on the east-west connections between Europe and Asia, but only for 68% of the ASKs rather than 82%.

The ability for the airline to adapt is impressive. As of Q2 2026, the airline posted an 8.6% operating profit margin. Not bad considering the Eastern skies from the airline’s headquarters are effectively closed.

Not bad at all.

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