Flag carrier Finnair has modified ten aircraft to carry more customers and cargo on Asia-bound routes due to it having to skirt Russia's vast airspace en route to Seoul and Tokyo.
The carrier said it "has worked with Airbus to increase the maximum take-off weight for a specially selected number of its state-of-the-art aircraft as demand for flights to and from Asia has risen".
The tweaks include "minor changes and updates to aircraft’s software and placards and manuals in cooperation with aircraft manufacturer Airbus" and would see maximum take-off weight for ten A350s lifted from 268 tonnes to 275 tonnes for five of the aircraft and 280 tonnes for the other five.
The routes from Helsinki to the Korean and Japanese capitals have been "made longer following the closure of Russian airspace which has forced Finnair to re-plan its flights and detour around Russia, consuming more fuel than used previously", the carrier said.
"But now after the modifications each aircraft can carry more customers and cargo, and importantly more fuel to fly the longer flight times between Finland and South Korea and Japan , as well as increasing the economic efficiency of each flight", it added.
“Usually we do everything we can to make our aircraft lighter, but for our flights to Tokyo and Seoul we’ve increased their maximum take-off weight to fly around Russia and meet the demand for increased customers, cargo and kerosene," said Leena Niemi, compliance manager for technical operation.