Elsewhere in Asia, the airline plans to return to Guangzhou with a weekly service starting next month.
Photo: Finnair
Finland’s flag carrier has just begun operating its second route to India, in addition to its existing daily service between Helsinki and Delhi. Airbus A330-300s are being deployed three times a week to Mumbai, with departures on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Frequencies are set to go up to four times weekly from November. Finnair’s General Manager for India, Sakari Romu, said in a statement, “Our three-weekly flights serve our customers not only in providing a connection to Finland but also to our network in the U.S. and major European cities.”
Flight AY125 will leave Helsinki at 5:55 p.m. and arrive in Mumbai at 5:15 a.m. the next morning after an estimated eight hours and 50 minutes in the air. The return service, AY126, will then depart from India’s commercial capital at 7:10 a.m. on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays to reach Helsinki-Vantaa Airport at 2:05 p.m. local time. The westbound journey will take approximately nine hours and 25 minutes.
Finnair is also taking steps to gradually increase its footprint in Mainland China. More than two years after suspending the route at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Helsinki to Guangzhou service will be flown on a weekly basis from September 6. Flights will be operated with an Airbus A350 aircraft, with departures from Helsinki scheduled on Tuesdays and departures from Guangzhou on Thursdays. The soon-to-be restored service promises seamless connectivity to a range of Finnair’s European destinations with transfer testing, as required by the Chinese authorities, available at Helsinki Airport for the flight to Guangzhou. The Oneworld alliance member airline currently flies to Shanghai once a week.
