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Nordic carrier Finnair is adding one more flight to India from June, although it is still waiting for permission from the Indian government to add more destinations apart from Mumbai and Delhi. Taina Tomstrom, director for Indian subcontinent for Finnair said that at present they have 12 flights a week between India and Helsinki. But by June, they plan to fly daily from New Delhi and six days in a week, to Mumbai. She further added that Finnair is vey eager to add more destinations on its list. But because of the present bilateral arrangements between the two countries, it is at present not possible. She said that the Asian passenger traffic has grown to over 24% last year and this is what is driving them to schedule more flights to India.
The airlines sees a huge potential for itself as many foreign companies like Nokia and industrial cranes major Kone have some big plans to open up their branches in India. Indian software giants like Infosys and Wipro are also setting up their bases in Finland which is a positive step as far as corporate expansion is concerned. Finnair plans to start their new services to Bangalore and Chennai. Keeping Helsinki as the base, it is also tapping the air-traffic to Europe from India.
Tomstorm said that Finnair offers its passengers the shortest route between Europe and India with good connectivity. Its services between India and US have been upgraded in terms of quality. She said that the airline now offers the second-fastest connection between Mumbai and New York, which takes about 17 hours.
