The service is set to start in May 2026 after a decade-long hiatus.
A Finnair Airbus A330 (Photo: AirlineGeeks | William Derrickson)
Finnish flag carrier Finnair is restarting nonstop service to Canada for the first time in over a decade.
The airline announced its Helsinki-Toronto route will relaunch on May 4, 2026. Flights will operate three times a week during the summer, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Sundays, using Airbus A330s.
Finnair last flew between Helsinki and Toronto in 2015. When the route restarts, it will be the only nonstop flight linking Canada and Finland.
Finnair currently has six destinations in North America: New York-JFK, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, and Seattle.
Airline officials said the Toronto route will give North American travelers better access to Helsinki, tourist spots around the Nordic countries, and the Baltic states further east, which receive relatively few transatlantic visitors. They also envision Helsinki serving as a bridge between Canada and India, with the flight from Toronto timed to allow connections to Finnair’s daily service to Delhi.
“Canada is fast becoming one of the most popular long-haul destinations for Europeans, while the Nordics are also heating up amongst North American travelers, so we are confident that this route will prove a hit with both business and leisure travelers heading across the Atlantic,” said Javier Roig Sanchez, Finnair’s general manager for North America, in a news release. “We also expect to see strong demand for travel between Canada and India, as customers experience the ease and convenience of connecting via Helsinki Airport, when travelling between North America and Asia.”
Toronto is the second new destination Finnair has announced for 2026. The first was the Norwegian town of Alta, one of the northernmost settlements in the world. Flights between Helsinki and Alta are scheduled to begin on March 29, 2026.
Finnair mainly serves destinations in Europe, but over the last several years has been expanding its presence in North America and the Middle East. Like all other Western carriers, it has been banned from using Russian airspace, making it more difficult and costly to maintain its routes to East Asia.
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