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"I cannot rule out Kingfisher connecting
Helsinki with some of the major Indian cities.
But it is up to them," said Mika Vehvilainen,
chief executive of Finnair. "I would love
to see our partnership develop further,"
Vehvilainen told IANS here.
His reference was to the recent pact with Kingfisher
that enabled the carrier to add seven more Indian
destinations to its network in India by quick
transfers for pasengers on the Indian carrier
to Finnair's own direct flights between New Delhi
and Helsinki.
"We area already doing a lot of code-sharing
and this will only grow," he said. The pact
covers Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai,
Jaipur and Ahmedabad, and allows the passengers
to also redeem points on any of the two carriers.
Vehvilainen said Finnair also saw a huge opportunity
to transfer traffic between India and North America,
but said the collaboration with Kingfisher on
that may happen only after Kingfisher formally
joins the OneWorld alliance of 12 global carriers.
"Kingfisher is a first class, high quality
airline. It fits into the OneWorld image,"
said the airline's chief executive.
"We have always looked at Helsinki as a
hub-and-spoke model. There is certainly a huge
opportunity in the transfer-traffic between India
and North America," said Vehvilainen, adding
that this market covered family, tourism and business
travel.
"As far as Kingfisher is concerned, it is
early. Kingfisher is in the process of joining
the OneWorld. But yes, there is an opportunity."
Finnair, which was forced to curtail direct scheduled
operations to Mumbai due to lack of availability
of aircraft and other market considerations, said
it had no immediate plans to re-start the direct
operations in the immediate future.
"Currently we do not have any such plans."
Nevertheless, Finnair Cargo is starting its flights
between Helsinki and Mumbai this week in co-operation
with Nordic Global Airlines. The service will
be operated once a week with a Boeing MD-11F aircraft.
(IANS)
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