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Finnair launches Helsinki to Delhi route

2 Nov 2006 by business traveller

Finnair launched its three-times weekly route to Delhi this week, with plans to increase this to five times a week by the summer of 2007.

Business Traveller attended the celebrations at Helsinki Airport, which included traditional Finnish singing and Indian snake dancing. In his opening speech CEO Jukka Heinonen spoke of the airline's continuing plans to develop Helsinki as a major hub for flights between Europe and Asia.

"We are the first North European carrier to fly direct to Delhi, and at six and a half hours our flights now represent the shortest route from the European Union to India's capital – half an hour shorter than flights from Vienna and one hour shorter than those from Frankfurt."

The Helsinki – Delhi route is Finnair's 10th Asian destination, with the carrier already plying Beijing and Shanghai six times weekly; Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Nagoya three times weekly; Tokyo, Osaka and Singapore four times a week; and Bangkok twice daily. The Delhi service departs Helsinki on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1410, arriving at 0010, with the return flights leaving Delhi at 0200 and arriving in Helsinki at 0600.

Heinonen also spoke of long term plans for Helsinki airport, including the construction of eight new long-haul gates, and of Finnair's choice to fly to several secondary destinations such as Guangzhou and Nagoya.

"We chose routes such as Nagoya in Japan due to the impossibility of getting further slots at Tokyo – we waited years for extra slots there, and although we now have them we can still only offer four flights a week [from the beginning of December] while we would prefer to offer a daily service."

Finnair introduced new business class seating earlier this year (see online news, March 2). Commenting on its decision to offer angled lie-flat seats rather than the fully flat versions seen on carriers such as BA and Virgin, Heinonen says:

"Our business class seats offer passengers just 11 degrees of recline [from horizontal], which when you subtract the natural five-degree slant of the plane in the air effectively means the seat is just six degrees from horizontal."

For a full review of the new seating on this route, see the December-January edition of Business Traveller.

Visit www.finnair.com.

 

Report by Mark Caswell

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