I came to Europe via Finnair this year as usual. This year’s transit was in Seoul. I worked late the night before – replying to all emails, finalising jobs as much as I could and posting my timesheet, so i slept so well in the flight to Seoul and also the first half of my flight to Helsinki. When I woke up, I was very surpruised to see this flying route

What on earth happened? The plane was heading to Alaska first, crossed the North Pole then headed down to Helsinki – this was an interesting route.

From Helsinki to Asia was once a shortcut – for some reason it’s a lot quicker than other cities, so I know some Germans even travel to Helsinki first rather than taking direct flight. Due to the war, Finnair couldn’t take the Russian route, so the travelling time was a lot longer . Last time when I travelled with Finnair early this year, it took a strange route below Ukraine, not a direct line just to avoid the war zone. But this time it took a step further to North Pole!

Many years ago, when I was travelling with Air China from Beijing to New York, it also took the North Pole route. Not for Russian reason, and I think it crossed Russia. So I guess it was not the first time I went to the North Pole.

In the end I received a certificate from Finnair showing I took the North Route – no name on it of course. It doesn’t even mention the other side of the city, so I guess it can be issued for all Helsinki to Asian flights!