India drives passenger traffic for Finnair

Wednesday, 25 July 2007, 19:30 IST
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New Delhi: Finnair has reported a 19.3 percent jump in scheduled traffic during the first six months of this year, thanks to an impressive growth of 30.5 percent in Asia, where it has added Mumbai as its latest destination. In June alone, the airline reported a 26.5 percent increase in scheduled traffic during which it added two Airbus A340 aircraft to its fleet, one of them to Mumbai. "The growth was derived from Asian traffic, which grew in June by 35.4 percent, as well as from European traffic, where demand exceeded last year's figure by 27.9 percent," the carrier said in a statement. Finnair, which was earlier flying charters to Goa, started its scheduled flights from Delhi Oct 31 last year and has been flying daily from Helsinki to the Indian capital since May 19. Mumbai was added to its schedule June 27 with five flights a week. According to Taina T?tr?the Finnair director for the Indian subcontinent, the carrier was in talks to add more destinations for onward connections in India and to also make them convenient. "Finnair is strengthening its partnerships with Indian air carriers to make these connections as smooth as possible," T?tr?aid in a statement. The airline official said the flights to Mumbai were part of Finnair's "Asian strategy" and in response to a strong demand from the Asian market. This, she said, had enhanced the number of weekly flights to India from seven to 12. "Mumbai is India's biggest business city and centre of business and logistics. India's most affluent population live in the area, so there is big potential for tourist traffic to Europe," T?tr?aid.
Source: IANS