The flight time to Narita airport, serving Japan’s capital, will now run to approximately 13 hours, said Finnair. Flights will operate from Helsinki on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, departing 5.30pm local time.

Returns will operate on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, departing Narita at 10.40pm.

"Japan is one of our most important markets, and we want to continue offering safe and reliable connections between Helsinki and Tokyo also in this situation”, said Ole Orver, Finnair chief commercial officer.

Finnair paused flights earlier this week to China, Japan and South Korea until Sunday 6 March.

It is continuing to fly to Bangkok, Delhi, Phuket and Singapore, via a longer routing that avoids Russian airspace. It also flies to Bangkok and Phuket from Stockholm Arlanda, in addition to Helsinki.

Orver added the carrier would continue to look into alternative routings to restore its China and South Korea routes. "[We] will communicate on these as soon as the plans are finalised," he said.