FINLAND: Finnair Starts New Flights To Los Angeles

Continuing with its growth strategy, Finnair has announced it will begin flying to Los Angeles, California, as of next spring.

Finnair will fly three weekly frequencies to LAX airport as of March 31, 2019. In addition, the new route to Los Angeles will be Finnair’s first US route to be regularly operated with the new Airbus A350 aircraft.

Finnair is also making some additions to its summer program for the San Francisco and Chicago route.

Both routes will begin in April, and a fourth frequency will be added for San Francisco as of May.

With these changes, Finnair will now offer a daily flight to California during the summer season with the new three-weekly flight to Los Angeles and the new fourth weekly service to San Francisco.

Los Angeles is best known for its beautiful weather, famous beaches, and as the home of the US television and film industry, including the world-renowned Hollywood neighborhood.

It is also one of the largest business travel and cargo hubs in the United States.

Thanks to Helsinki’s geographical location, Finnair’s new northern route to Los Angeles will offer competitive and convenient travel times for customers from Scandinavia, the Baltics, Russia, Northern Germany as well as domestic routes in Finland.

We are very happy to expand our North American network and fly a new route to Los Angeles with our Airbus A350, says Juha Järvinen, Chief Commercial Officer at Finnair.

We opened our route to San Francisco two years ago with tremendous success, proving that California and the West Coast are very popular with our customers.

We are confident that this new route to Los Angeles will garner the same level of interest moving forward.

Los Angeles will be Finnair’s fifth US destination, along with New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Miami. The approximate flight times are expected to be 11 hours to LAX and 10 hours and 30 minutes to Helsinki.

The new route will be operated within the Atlantic joint business between Finnair, American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia.

Currently, the four airlines operate over 100 daily return flights between Europe and North America.


Tourism Observer

OMAN: Amerat And Naseem Parks To Close For Muscat Festival

Naseem and Al Amerat parks, the two major venues for Muscat Festival 2017, will be closed to the public beginning tomorrow to prepare them for the annual cultural event.

“The parks, Naseem and Al Amerat, will close from December 13 to prepare [them] for the Muscat Festival starting January 19,” an official of Muscat Municipality told the Times of Oman.

Mohsen bin Mohammed Al Shaikh, chairman of the Muscat Municipality, recently chaired a meeting with members of the festival’s organising committee to discuss the events and activities that will be part of the festival.

Among the activities planned is a consumer exhibition for families, in which private and government organisations will participate.

Two big events, including a football tournament and a Global Fashion Forum, are also slated to be held at the cultural extravaganza.

“We are trying to do many entertaining and cultural activities at the festival.

“There will be a football tournament from January as part of the event. A Global Fashion Forum will also take place; this is being organised by the Oman Film Society,” the official added.

The Global Fashion Forum will include a traditional fashion show, where designers from all throughout the world will display traditional outfits from their countries.

“We have planned a two-day fashion event that will include a traditional fashion show, for which we have designers from many countries taking part,” Fatma Al Salmi, organising coordinator of the fashion event at the Oman Film Society, said. “Along with the fashion show we have a cinematic makeup performance, as well.

This will be done by some Omani makeup artists, and we are planning to include character imitations from the Arab world, Bollywood, and Hollywood. The Mad Hatter is one character we have in mind,” she added.

The organising committee underscored the importance of the festival in promoting tourism in the Sultanate and educating the public about Oman’s heritage and culture.

USA: No Limit For Florida Tourism

Tourism in Florida — the second-most visited state in the U.S. — has been on a roll for years, and 2015 has been no exception. And 2016 and beyond likely won't be, either.

Latest figures from Visit Florida, the state's tourism marketing agency, indicate that the final visitor total for this year likely will top the 100 million threshold, the fifth straight record-breaking year for the Sunshine State.

Visit Florida predicted several months ago that the state would crack the 100 million mark this year for the first time in history, and the prediction seemingly is proving to be accurate. Florida welcomed 79.1 million visitors through Sept. 30 of this year, a 5.5 percent increase over the same period in 2014. The third quarter growth, according to Travel Weekly, was driven by an 8.2 percent increase in domestic tourists.

Florida trails only California, which boasts Hollywood and Disneyland as its most major attractions. as the most popular state to visit in the U.S.

For next year, in addition to a host of new Florida attractions that already have been announced by Disney World and other world-class amusement parks, the always-popular Kennedy Space Center will unveil several immersive live game attractions in February.

Collectively called Cosmic Quest, the games will combine story-telling, technology, math and science to engage children as well as adults.

In one attraction, named NASA's Next Rocket Launch Adventure, "trainees" will assemble a launch team and then feel vibrations and steam as the rocket lifts off the pad.

At Mars Colony Adventures, participants will build either a research exploration base or a permanent colony.

Coming up a year or two away, a major attraction in Orlando is now on the drawing board that will feature the world's tallest roller coaster.

A $500 million Skyplex Orlando project has won approval from the Orange County Board of Commissioners. As a result, the developer can move to the planning and construction phase to build a 570-foot "Skyscraper' coaster and surrounding entertainment complex on Orlando's International Drive.

World-famous International Drive is located about 20 miles outside of downtown Orlando. It is a 11-mile strip of shops, restaurants and hotels situated between Universal and Sea World Orlando.

The Skyplex complex also would include two other rides, a 350-room hotel, restaurants and stores.

The current tallest roller coaster is the 450-foot "Kingxda Ka" at New Jersey's Six Flags Great Adventure. It features a 418-foot drop. The coaster in Orlando would have a 450-foot drop.