By IANS
New Delhi : Finnish carrier Finnair is stepping up its frequency to Mumbai and has asked its government to request additional destinations and slots in India to tap the growing international air traffic from the country.
Starting April, the flag carrier of the Nordic nation is enhancing its frequency from Mumbai to six flights per week from the present five and also changing the schedule to accommodate weekend travellers, Finnair officials here said.
“We also offer the shortest travel time to Europe and we will soon ensure that a passenger from Mumbai spends no more than 35 minutes in Helsinki for connections to New York,” said Taina Tornstrom, director for Indian Subcontinent.
“Finnair will also launch a series of promotional packages soon, which are aimed at segments like students and summer travellers. These will target both visitors to Finland and onward travellers,” Tornstrom told IANS.
According to the senior executive, who launched her airline’s India operations in October 2006 with five flights to the Indian capital, the airline will soon exhaust the available 14 slots to the country.
“So the bilateral with India – which allows only two destinations – will have to be renewed so that we get more slots and more destinations. India is high on our priority since business links between our two countries is also expanding.”
Her reference was to a strong presence of more than 70 Finnish companies in the country led by Nokia, Wartsila, Metso and Kone, and commencement of operations by around 20 Indian companies in Finland – like Wipro, Sasken and Infosys.
“The visas issued by our embassy in India is also growing – from 40,000 in 2006 to around 60,000 in 2007. That is one of the reasons why our government thought of a consulate in Mumbai,” she added.
“People are finding Finland interesting for holidays. We have Santa Claus. We have lakes. We have saunas. We have reindeer. The interest has really grown in the past few years,”
She said figures corroborated that as well since the carrier’s overall traffic measured in passenger kilometres grew 16.2 percent in 2007, while the traffic from Asia, including India, was up 32.6 percent.
Finnair, according to airline officials, is also in talks with Vijay Mallya-led Kingisher Airlines to not only ensure seamless connectivity to other cities but also share resources using the One World alliance among global carriers.
According to her, since Helsinki offers convenient connectivity to both Europe and North America, Finnair can be an excellent partner should an Indian airline choose the Finish capital as a possible European hub.
“We are used to seeing the map on a sheet of paper. If you look at the globe, it will show how close Helsinki is to India compared with other European cities. It just takes six hours and 30 minutes to fly from New Delhi to Helsinki.”
Tornstrom said the carrier’s chartered operations to Goa were also growing fast, having started such services more than two decades ago. “We operate more than 20 charters to Goa now during the winter season. Many are repeat travellers.”