Interview: How Finnair's CEO Plans to Crack the Chinese Market

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While many of its European competitors, like Lufthansa Group, fly to most major global cities, Finnair tries to focus on what it does best — connecting Europe with Asia.

It's a strategy that allows the airline to take advantage of the location of its Helsinki hub. For most of Europe, Finland is on the way to Asia, and Finnair, which flies the newest and most fuel-efficient widebody Airbus jet, the A350, has the right fleet for the routes.

But travelers in major European capitals generally can reach larger Asian cities, like Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing, nonstop on their home-country carriers. So while Finnair flies to those larger markets, it also connects European cities with secondary cities in Asia, sometimes flying to airports with little, or no, European competition.

Finnair might not be the perfect airline for a Londoner headed to Tokyo, but it's well-positioned to attract someone from London, Paris, Madrid or Brussels seeking fast, one-stop flights to Chongqing and X'ian in China, Krabi and Phuket in Thailand, and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

We met recently with Finnair CEO Pekka Vauramo in Cancun at the IATA Annual General Meeting, an annual conference for airline executives. We asked him about the airline's Asia strategy, and whether it needs to tweak its onboard product to cater to Chinese travelers. We also asked about cabin interiors, including problems with the carrier's new business class seats, manufactured by Zodiac.

Skift: You've had quality issues with A350 cabins and seats. Your interiors are manufactured by Zodiac, a company Cathay Pacific, United Airlines and American Airlines have also had problems with. What's happening?

Vauramo: Yes, that is correct. The seat itself is not the issue, but what's around the seat and all the panels relating to that module have been a big, big problem. The panels are not fitting. They have to be individually fitted in each place, and then of course if they are individually fitted in each place, there's no spare parts available and things like that.

Skift: I know Cathay Pacific had a similar problem, but it said it was only on some planes. Is this on all nine of your A350s?

Vauramo:.Things are better with the latest deliveries. There are some things to re-work with them as well, but not to the same extent.

Skift: Is it frustrating?

Vauramo: Certainly, it's frustrating when we