Finnair has commenced operations from Mumbai, making a comeback in the financial capital of India after 13 years (Finnair last served Mumbai in 2009). The inaugural flight took-off on 7th August 2022.
Adds second point in India
As of 7th August 2022, Finnair is operating 3-flights-a-week between Helsinki Vantaa Airport and Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) with the following schedule:
- Helsinki-Mumbai
- Departure time: 17:55
- Arrival time: 05:15 (the next day)
- Flight time: 8 hours and 50 minutes
- Flight number: AY125
- Frequency: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays
- Mumbai-Helsinki
- Departure time: 07:10
- Arrival time: 14:05
- Flight time: 9 hours and 25 minutes
- Flight number: AY126
- Frequency: Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays
The flights are operated by Finnair’s Airbus A330-300 aircraft featuring lie-flat Business Class seats, extra-legroom Economy Class seats and standard Economy Class seats.
We are very excited to start our operations from Mumbai. Our three-weekly flights serve our customers not only in providing a connection to Finland but also to our network in the US and major European cities.
said Sakari Romu, Finnair’s General Manager of India.
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The airline says that the flights have been specifically timed to allow for easy connections onto its worldwide destinations – including top UK airports, London Heathrow, Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin.
CSMIA is extremely delighted with the association with Finnair, one of the leading airlines catering to routes across Asia, U.S and Europe. With the promise of being a gateway to the Nordic country, this partnership further adds to the airport’s robust connectivity with the addition of a prominent hub like Helsinki to its route network. With an aim to provide passengers with unparalleled travel across geographies, the partnership is not just a step towards direct connectivity to Finland but is a testament to CSMIA’s constant effort to expand the portfolio of destinations around the world and vision to contribute to the global travel network.
said a spokesperson from CSMIA.
Mumbai is the second destination for Finnair in India. The carrier already operates a daily Airbus A350 flight to Delhi.
As Chinese and Japanese markets are still more or less closed, Finnair has been forced to act differently. This is because Finnair had a major focus on those markets prior to the pandemic. In addition to that, Russia’s airspace is also closed, making it unfavourable to fly to China and Japan. This means that there are far fewer routes to the Far East. This also means that the few routes it has to the Far East are now much longer and more costly to operate.
The largest market then remains is India. And metro cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru are a natural choice for any foreign airline as those are the two largest Indian markets after Delhi. Romu, Finnair’s General Manager for India has even expressed interest to launch flights to other cities in India like Bengaluru or Chennai.
Featured image by Airplane Pictures
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[…] And the airline has also put an increased focus on its Indian network. On 6th August 2022, the airline launched nonstop flights between Helsinki and Mumbai for the first time in 13 […]