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Finnair now looks at Bangalore, Chennai to expand reach
Monday, 08 September 2008, 22:13 IST
Mumbai: Buoyed by the success of flying to India, Nordic carrier Finnair proposes to start flights to Chennai and Bangalore to tap the market that has resulted from the growing bilateral business ties and expanding air travel to Europe.
"We look forward to the review of the bilateral civil aviation pact between Finland and India since we have been studying two destinations very, very closely - Bangalore and Chennai," said Finnair's new director for Indian subcontinent Kari Stolbow.
"The Indian market, where we started scheduled operations only in October 2006, has been a major contributor to our overall Asian growth and remains top on our priority list," Stolbow, who is a veteran at Finnair, told IANS.
In the past few years, several Finish companies like mobile phones maker Nokia and the elevator giant Kone have announced major expansion plans in India, even as domestic IT and software giants like Wipro and Infosys have set up bases in Finland, he said.
"This means a big potential for us. But the present aviation agreement allows Finnish carriers to operate only seven flights a week each to New Delhi and Mumbai. We do hope for more slots," Stolbow added.
Asked about the current economic downturn and the impact on the global aviation sector, Stolbow said that was, indeed, worrisome but added that Finnair - which has been operating charters to Goa for more than 20 years - remained bullish on India plans.
"Soaring fuel prices has not forced us to rethink on several routes or cut flights. It has only slowed down the pace of our expansion plan. Once we start receiving our new fleet of fuel efficient aircrafts, we will get back in full swing."
For the ensuing winter season, the government-held but professionally-run carrier has revised its schedules to both Delhi and Mumbai primarily to offer better connectivity to as many as 21 European destinations.
"From this winter, passengers travelling from New Delhi and Mumbai will have much better connectivity to cities like Barcelona, Lisbon, Madrid, Milan and Munich," Stolbow said.
Finnair's flights will depar from New Delhi at 11:30 am. and reach Helsinki at 3 pm. Flights out of Mumbai will leave at 9:15 am and reach Helsinki at 205 pm, he said, adding: "This will also give our passengers the convenience of day-time flying."
On return, the flights leave the Finnish capital at 8 pm and reach New Delhi at 6 am and those to Mumbai leave Helsinki at 5:25 pm and reach Mumbai at 4:30 in the morning.
"We are having to reduce the frequency of our daily flights to New Delhi by a day and to Mumbai, where we now operate six days a week, to four days. But this is only a temporary measure," he added.
Source: IANS
Source: IANS