Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa) has officially outlined its planned A350-900 operating schedule with the type set to make its longhaul debut on October 25 with flights to Shanghai Pudong, China.

The Finnish carrier will officially begin A350 operations on October 5 with crew familiarization flights to Rovaniemi and Oulu domestically before deploying the twinjet onto regional services to London Heathrow, Frankfurt International, Stockholm Arlanda, Copenhagen Kastrup, Paris CDG, Amsterdam Schiphol, Oslo Gardermoen, Barcelona El Prat, Malaga, Hamburg Helmut Schmidt, Brussels National, Berlin Tegel, Gothenburg Landvetter, Düsseldorf, Vienna, and Munich from October 6 onwards.

Thereafter, with Shanghai flights scheduled for October 25, the A350 will be used on flights to Beijing Capital from November 21, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi from December 1, Hong Kong International from February 2016 and Singapore Changi from May next year.

Finnair has nineteen A350-900 aircraft on order from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac), and expects to receive the first four by the end of this year. Another seven will be delivered in 2016 and 2017, with the remaining eight to be delivered between 2018 and 2023. Finnair plans to phase out its seven A340-300s by the end of 2017, leaving a widebody fleet that comprises A330-300s and A350 aircraft.