The EU and Russia have agreed upon the abolition of Siberian overflight charges, consisting of navigation fees and extraordinary royalty payments, at a recent EU-Russia summit in Helsinki.
Finnair's Kari Koli, vice president for international relations, hailed the news, saying the agreement will lower costs in Asian traffic by over EUR20 million (US$26.6 million) annually after 2013.
The overflight payments for Finnair are now close to EUR30 million a year with over half of the sum consisting of extraordinary royalty payments on air routes between Europe and destinations in China and Japan. For flights to Thailand and India navigation fees are set according to international standards.
Finnair's Asian traffic is increasing by over 20 per cent a year and the airline is flying over 30 flights a week to China and Japan.
"Siberian overflight payments are significant for Finnair since the share of Asian traffic is relatively higher for us compared to most other European airlines," said a company statement.
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