Closure of Chinese airspace reverberates in Helsinki

Finnair Flies Faster!

I was going to suggest this excellent slogan to that airline and let them use it for free, until a few weeks ago.

I've flown Finnair to Norway many times over the past few years and loved it. Not only does it shave three to four hours off the normal travel time, but Helsinki Airport - through which I connect to Oslo - has some brilliant shops, where you can buy such gems as wooden Nokia mobile phones doubling as bottle openers.

But on May 16, just after midnight, my love affair with Finnair took something of a nosedive. After a slight delay before boarding, the packed-to-the-rafters plane sat on the tarmac for a while. Then another while. And then another.

The captain came on the public address system and mumbled some upbeat comments about "a short delay" and "a little while". After almost five hours of short delays I was expecting to be sent home with a large sum of compensation. But then the captain returned saying everybody who "needed fresh air" could go back into the airport. Ha!

I was finishing my second film at this point and was loath to get up. Sure enough, as soon as everyone had left their seats, the captain announced, "Oh yeah, we're leaving now, so sit down, mugs."