Finnair has announced its plans to introduce four new scheduled routes in Europe from Helsinki, as well as converting a number of charter/leisure routes to scheduled service.

The flag carrier and largest airline of Finland will commence services to Billund, Edinburgh, Svalbard and Pula next year for its summer 2016 schedule.

Flights to Edinburgh will commence on April 18, 2016 and will operate three-times-weekly, increasing to four-weekly in peak summer season, while flights to Billund in Denmark will commence on April 4, 2016, operating daily.

"The Edinburgh flight will give excellent possibilities for our Asian customers to connect to Scotland on their trips to the UK, and it will connect Scotland to Finnair's extensive Asian network which covers 13 airports," says Petri Vuori, Finnair's Vice-President of Global Sales.

Finnair will be one of the only airlines currently offering scheduled international services to Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. From June 1 to August 27, 2016, there will be thrice weekly flights from Helsinki to the northernmost airport in the world.

Finally, the airline will continue to increase its Croatia service will two weekly flights between Helsinki and Pula from June 20 to August 12, 2016.

Pula is situated at the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula, overlooking the Adriatic. Its well preserved Roman amphitheatre is one of the best-known sightseeing attractions in Croatia.

Finnair also flies to Dubrovnik and Split, offering a total of 14 weekly flights to Croatia. The airline will also increase its Split service, with two additional weekly flights next summer.

Eight services previously operated as leisure charter routes will be converted to scheduled services in the summer 2016 season.

Departing from Helsinki, services to Preveza, Santorini, Rimini, Mytilene, Varna, Verona, Zakinthos and Skiathos will all be transferred to scheduled services over the course of May and June next year. All services will operate once weekly, apart from the Helsinki to Preveza service will which will operate on a twice-weekly basis.

According to the airline, its decision to change the charter flights to scheduled services gives people the opportunity to choose a package tour or an individual vacation.

Finnair also plans to increase the number of flights to popular summer destinations including Malta and Tel Aviv, as well as to Biarritz and Nice in France.