FINNAIR FLIGHTS TO INDIA TO BE QUADRUPLED:
FLIGHTS TO MUMBAI ALL SET FOR JUNE LAUNCH

Finnair is set for a massive boost to the fast growing Asian market with
significant increases in traffic to India and China. In response to strong
demand, the number of weekly flights to India will increase from the current
three to 12, while there will also be an increase in flights to China.

In June, Finnair will launch a new Indian route with flights to Mumbai, which
will be served non-stop from Helsinki five days a week. Moreover, in mid-May the
current three-weekly frequency for flights to the Indian capital Delhi will be
increased to daily.

"It will be extremely hard, if not impossible for airlines to secure new arrival
and departure slots at Indian airports in the coming years," says Henrik Arle,
Finnair's Deputy CEO, responsible for Scheduled Passenger Traffic. "By adding to
its Indian scheduled traffic just now, Finnair is ensuring its presence in these
fast growing markets."

Meanwhile, Finnair's China traffic will increase in mid-May, with the boosting in
frequency of non-stop Hong Kong services from four times a week to daily. Non-
stop services will continue over the next winter timetable season. The Chinese
network will be further strengthened with the addition of a fourth weekly flight
to Guangzhou.

As a result of the increases in Indian and Chinese traffic, the onward flights
from Bangkok to Singapore will no longer be operated. Singapore and the flights
previously planned for Kuala Lumpur will be served in cooperation with partner airlines.

"Following these renewals, we will fly to all our long-haul destinations non-
stop, without stopovers," says Arle. "Daily flights bring more alternatives for
our customers."

The changes about to be implemented also significantly increase the efficiency of
the Finnair long-haul fleet usage. The number of weekly long-haul flights from Helsinki
will increase from 61 to 66. The monthly passenger kilometre totals offered by Finnair
on long-haul traffic will consequently grow by 2.5 per cent.

All in all Finnair Asian traffic will grow this year by over 30 per cent since
Finnair is adding two new Airbus A340 aircraft for the long-haul fleet during May
and June.

Finnair Plc
Communications
22.1.2007

I've been looking forward to this announcement.

100% mileage credit to AA for Europe-India/India-Europe is always to be welcomed.

Unfortunately the SIN and BKK cancellations will be very unwelcome for QF flyers who were using the short haul sectors for SC accumulation. Also I am guessing that many of the great AY D class fares offered ex-Australia will also suffer (unless of course AY is now offering them with a QF connection in HKG and PEK).

It's a real shame AY don't have more aircraft.

And it hasn't even started on BKK-KUL services yet !

BKK-SIN used to be served by several european carriers with 5th Freedom traffic rights.. ie SK, LX, AY..

Now there's only LX left...

Pity that AY has to relocate aircraft around just because there is not much going around they can do about it.

I assume there is little change in the Australian fares. Most of them are offered as SYD/MEL-BKK-HEL-XXX anyway and I didn't find any BKK-HEL cancellations. They just don't start flying BKK-KUL and cancel BKK-SIN to get the planes back from Asia faster. So if the cheap Australian fares didn't require a connection in Singapore, then everything should remain more or less the same?

I don't think it's a question of getting more aircraft. I assume they've got the money to rent some if they feel like it as they just did. My guess is that the problem is actually HEL running out of gates every afternoon in the non-schengen area and you just don't load/unload an A340 with buses if you want to be quick about it. The HEL expansion will be ready in 2009 and they'll get new gates then but before that they're probably not able to expand their Asian network much more.

HEL is already a nightmare on every afternoon at about 4PM. The lounges are packed and people are drinking their GTs standing as every seat is occupied. Also, the three always full UK flights departing between 4 and 6PM seem to be from the 31abcde bus gates. It seems to take forever to get everyone on an A321 on board on time by bus and they never depart on time anymore.

So sadly it seems that adding a couple of A340s there before the expansion departing on a popular time isn't an option for them.

/hv

Quite welcome news for regulars to DEL though. 320 BA TPs per round trip from the UK.

So are there any remaining non-CX OW airlines flying intra-Asia/5th Freedom routes? Of interest for folks using AA miles for Oneworld awards...

None that I can find.

deleted

Whilst the A340 is starting to show it's age, I very much doubt there are a ready supply of A340s out there available for AY to even lease.

None that I can think of until JAL joins one world and flies SIN/KUL

Yes - QF flies SIN-DPS-SIN Tues & Sat (QF75/76)

Any indication when the SIN service ceases?

Well spotted. PER-DPS-SIN-DPS-PER.

Last AY97/AY98 BKK-SIN/SIN-BKK is on 16th May 2007.