Finnair flight 666 to HEL makes final Friday 13th departure

Finnair's flight 666 to HEL makes its last Friday the 13th run today

Today, flight 666 to HEL takes off for the last time on Friday the 13th (Screenshot: The Independent)

Happy Friday the 13th. Would you like to fly to HEL? Flight 666 is about to depart.

In fact, it’s about to depart for the very last time. After 11 years of operating flight AY666 from Copenhagen (CPH) to Helsinki (HEL), Finnair is retiring the ominously billed journey – or, rather, renaming it.

Flight 666 going straight to HEL will take off today at 13.20 from Copenhagen’s Terminal 2. It is scheduled to arrive in HEL (again Terminal 2) at 15.55.

From 29 October, the flight will be renamed AY954. The last flight 666 will fly on Friday 27 October.

The last time flight 666 performed on a Friday 13th was in January 2017. On that occasion, the flight – made on an unlucky-for-some 13-year-old jet – landed on time, despite having taken off late.

The previous Friday 13th flight, in May 2016, landed three minutes late.

Finnair has operated the AY666 route since 2006. According to the Telegraph, the flight has been scheduled on a Friday the 13th no fewer than 21 times.

A spokesperson for Finnair told The Independent that the number has not been changed due to superstitious passengers.

“We are a growing airline and we are reorganising our flight numbers to make room for additional flight numbers to be used,” he said.

‘Brad Bernoulli’, the Independent’s flight attendant columnist, says that he’s expecting a lighter load on flights today. “Passengers are definitely more attuned to full moons, Friday the 13th and that kind of thing,” he said – adding that although “some flight attendants are more superstitious than others”, he hasn’t ever noticed an increase in people calling in sick.

Last winter, HEL hit the headlines for a poster greeting tourists on arrival.

"Nobody in their right mind would come to Helsinki in November," read the poster at the airport, on behalf of the tourist board and a start-up festival.

"Except you, you badass. Welcome."

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