Finland’s flag carrier Finnair will connect Helsinki with Mumbai with direct flight from March 2024, Sakari Romu, General Manager, Finnair, told Moneycontrol.

“We were forced to stop operations to Mumbai because of the Russia-Ukraine war and restriction on the use of Russian airspace,” Romu said, adding, that Finnair will now start direct flights to Mumbai by flying over Europe.

He added that after starting direct flights between Mumbai and Helsinki, as part of its summer schedule in August 2022, the airline was forced to suspend operations from February on account of the Russia-Ukraine war.

“Due to the closure of the Russian airspace, our flying time to Asian destinations like Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong rose from around 9 hours to close to 13.5 hours,” Romu said, adding that due to the increased flying time a higher capacity needed to be deployed on these routes leaving behind fewer planes to be used for Indian operations.

Finnair is also looking to hire around 50 more flying crew for its Mumbai operations and will hire Indian pilots and cabin crew for the same.

“Our customers really appreciate our Indian crew and when we restart our Mumbai operations, we will hire around 50 more flying crew in addition to the current 50 Indian flying crew we have,” Romu said.

Romu said that Finnair was making higher revenue per flight from its operations to Mumbai compared to its direct flight to Delhi, which is why the airline is eager to restart operations soon.

He also said that despite rising international competition, the Indian market is large enough for all airlines to expand their operations and thrive.

The head of Finnair’s Indian operations also said that the airline is actively looking to expand its market offerings in India and is looking at Bengaluru and Chennai as potential markets.

“We are considering partnership on both an individual airline-to-airline basis and also on a more holistic alliance level as well with Indian airlines, some discussions are ongoing but not final yet,” Romu said.

He also said that travel demand between India and Europe has still not reached its peak due to limitations in visa processing by the European countries. While limitations due to visa processing are slowly improving he expects travel demand between India and Europe to reach its peak after six months once these limitations are addressed.

Romu also said that airfares are expected to remain strong for at least the next six months as demand continues to outpace supply at the moment and fuel prices remain high.

He said that while demand from India continues to be strong at the moment, corporate travel has not reached pre-COVID levels yet.

“Business travel from India is still around 60 percent of the level we were seeing in 2019,” Romu said, adding, it would take at least another six months for corporate travel to return to pre-COVID levels. Finnair, which was founded in 1923, is among the oldest airlines in the world. Currently, the airline is operating a daily flight to Delhi.

Finnair connects customers to almost 70 destinations in Europe and five destinations in the US, including Seattle, New York, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles. The carrier will be operating wide-body Airbus A330 aircraft for flights to India.