Finnair has tied up with Kingfisher to allow
people travelling from Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai,
Hyderabad, Pune, Jaipur and Ahmedabad to about
60 European cities on a single booking.
"On one ticket passengers can check their
luggage to whatever city they are flying to and
the same thing can happen on their way back,"
Kari Stolbow, Finnair director for the Indian
subcontinent, told IANS.
"This connectivity now means that a flight
from Chennai or Bangalore lands just in time for
a passenger to very smoothly catch the flight
to Helsinki or any other destination. Its not
like other airlines, when you arrive in the middle
of the night and you have to wait for some hours
to make your connection," added Stolbow.
Also, Kingfisher was inducted into the global
airline alliance "OneWorld" earlier
this year, which will now enable other airlines
in the group to sell tickets for routes operated
by the Indian carrier.
The foreign carrier, which has a load factor
averaging around 90 on its Delhi and other Asian
flights, hopes to expand its market share beyond
Delhi through the Kingfisher alliance.
Load factor is a measure of occupancy used in
the airline industry and is defined as the percentage
of seats occupied to all seats that were on offer.
"This is a big opportunity for us in the
next year. In Delhi we have a good, decent market
share...but beyond Delhi we are still trying to
take the Finnair flag," said Stolbow.
Currently, Finnair operates six flights a week
between New Delhi and Helsinki, which it plans
to increase to a daily service from January next
year.
(IANS)
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