China Southern Airlines has confirmed that it will relaunch non-stop passenger flights between Beijing-Daxing (PKX) and Helsinki-Vantaa (HEL) at the end of March 2026, restoring a link that was suspended at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and later complicated by the closure of Russian airspace.
An initial three-times-weekly rotation operated by Boeing 787-9s will ramp up to daily services in June, giving Finland its first direct access to northern China since 2021. Flight CZ309 will depart Daxing on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 02:30, arriving in Helsinki at 06:45 local time; the return leg leaves HEL at 12:15 and lands in Beijing the following morning at 04:05, optimised to feed China Southern’s extensive domestic network.
For Finnish exporters, the belly-hold capacity—around 15 tonnes per flight—offers a new, time-critical route for technology components, pharmaceuticals and perishables into China’s Bohai Bay economic zone, bypassing current freighter congestion at Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Visit Finland, the country’s tourism-promotion agency, expects a surge in winter-season arrivals drawn by Lapland’s aurora safaris and upmarket sauna retreats; pre-pandemic, Chinese visitors accounted for €271 million in annual tourism revenue.
![China Southern revives Beijing–Helsinki route after five-year hiatus]()
Business-mobility planners should note that Helsinki serves as a convenient one-stop gateway for corporate travellers from northern Germany, the Baltics and Scandinavia thanks to short minimum-connection times at HEL. With Finland’s simplified e-TA application for Chinese nationals launching in February 2026, travel-document friction will be minimal once the route opens.
Whether you’re a Chinese visitor eager to secure Finland’s new e-TA or a Nordic executive needing a fast-tracked Chinese business visa, VisaHQ can handle the paperwork, real-time requirement checks and courier logistics for you. Their streamlined platform at https://www.visahq.com/finland/ removes the administrative hassle so you can focus on planning your itinerary instead of queuing at consulates.
The resumption also signals tentative thawing in over-flight politics: although Finnish carriers remain barred from using Siberian polar tracks to Asia, Chinese airlines can overfly Russia, cutting block times to under ten hours and making Beijing–Helsinki commercially viable again. Analysts see the move as part of a wider revival of Sino-Nordic air links, with Finnair expected to codeshare once slots are finalised.
From a policy standpoint, the additional connectivity supports Finland’s National Tourism Strategy target of doubling long-haul visitor numbers by 2030 and aligns with the government’s push to diversify export markets beyond the EU. Companies should, however, keep an eye on bilateral traffic-rights negotiations and any geopolitical flare-ups that could re-impose routing constraints.
An initial three-times-weekly rotation operated by Boeing 787-9s will ramp up to daily services in June, giving Finland its first direct access to northern China since 2021. Flight CZ309 will depart Daxing on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 02:30, arriving in Helsinki at 06:45 local time; the return leg leaves HEL at 12:15 and lands in Beijing the following morning at 04:05, optimised to feed China Southern’s extensive domestic network.
For Finnish exporters, the belly-hold capacity—around 15 tonnes per flight—offers a new, time-critical route for technology components, pharmaceuticals and perishables into China’s Bohai Bay economic zone, bypassing current freighter congestion at Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Visit Finland, the country’s tourism-promotion agency, expects a surge in winter-season arrivals drawn by Lapland’s aurora safaris and upmarket sauna retreats; pre-pandemic, Chinese visitors accounted for €271 million in annual tourism revenue.
Business-mobility planners should note that Helsinki serves as a convenient one-stop gateway for corporate travellers from northern Germany, the Baltics and Scandinavia thanks to short minimum-connection times at HEL. With Finland’s simplified e-TA application for Chinese nationals launching in February 2026, travel-document friction will be minimal once the route opens.
Whether you’re a Chinese visitor eager to secure Finland’s new e-TA or a Nordic executive needing a fast-tracked Chinese business visa, VisaHQ can handle the paperwork, real-time requirement checks and courier logistics for you. Their streamlined platform at https://www.visahq.com/finland/ removes the administrative hassle so you can focus on planning your itinerary instead of queuing at consulates.
The resumption also signals tentative thawing in over-flight politics: although Finnish carriers remain barred from using Siberian polar tracks to Asia, Chinese airlines can overfly Russia, cutting block times to under ten hours and making Beijing–Helsinki commercially viable again. Analysts see the move as part of a wider revival of Sino-Nordic air links, with Finnair expected to codeshare once slots are finalised.
From a policy standpoint, the additional connectivity supports Finland’s National Tourism Strategy target of doubling long-haul visitor numbers by 2030 and aligns with the government’s push to diversify export markets beyond the EU. Companies should, however, keep an eye on bilateral traffic-rights negotiations and any geopolitical flare-ups that could re-impose routing constraints.
