FINNAIR PLANS TO TAP COMMERCIALLY VIABLE INDIA-US ROUTE.

MUMBAI, March 3 Asia Pulse - Aiming to tap the potential of the high-traffic route between India and the US, Finnish airline Finnair plans to start more flights that link the subcontinent and cities in the US, a senior official from the airline said.

"We presently get about one third of our revenue from India and in the long run one of our interests will be further expanding out operations on the India-US route," Sakari Romu, Vice President Commercial Division of Finnair told PTI.

"We will be looking to provide more services in the US and are looking at destinations on the west coast and cities like Houston and Dallas to which we can provide services in the future to cater to India-US traffic," he said, speaking on the sidelines of a yacht show in the city.

Presently, the airline has connecting services only to the city of New York in the US from Helsinki in Finland, where the airline is based.

An additional advantage the airline would provide customers would be a shorter flying time to the US, Romu said.

The airline will soon have 19 flights a week from India to Helsinki, daily from Delhi and six from Mumbai by June, and is looking to provide services to other cities in the country, he said.

"We would like to make Mumbai a daily flight destination and other cities like Chennai or Bangalore hold potential for us," Romu said.