Finnair Not Averse to Kingfisher's Direct Flights to Helsinki

Helsinki: Despite a pact with Vijay Mallya-led Kingfisher Airlines, Nordic carrier Finnair said it has no objection to the Indian carrier connecting directly with Helsinki from other Indian cities as it saw huge possibilities in their partnership.
"I cannot rule out Kingfisher connecting Helsinki with some of the major Indian cities. But it is up to them," said Mika Vehvilainen, chief executive of Finnair. "I would love to see our partnership develop further," Vehvilainen told IANS here.
His reference was to the recent pact with Kingfisher that enabled the carrier to add seven more Indian destinations to its network in India by quick transfers for pasengers on the Indian carrier to Finnair's own direct flights between New Delhi and Helsinki.
"We area already doing a lot of code-sharing and this will only grow," he said. The pact covers Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur and Ahmedabad, and allows the passengers to also redeem points on any of the two carriers.
Vehvilainen said Finnair also saw a huge opportunity to transfer traffic between India and North America, but said the collaboration with Kingfisher on that may happen only after Kingfisher formally joins the OneWorld alliance of 12 global carriers.
"Kingfisher is a first class, high quality airline. It fits into the OneWorld image," said the airline's chief executive.
14/09/11 IANS/Daijiworld.com

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Categories: Foreign Sep 2011, Kingfisher Sep 2011