Finnair has announced that flying from Helsinki to Bengaluru and Chennai, where Finnish companies have a large business presence, is part of its expansion plans. However, Airlines said that it has no immediate plans to start operations to Bengaluru or Chennai. Also, there were no plans in the near-term to resume services to Mumbai. The airline will start daily service between New Delhi and Helsinki from January next year, up from the six flights a week it operates now. The airline reduced its service to New Delhi from seven to six days earlier this month. Two years ago, it suspended the service to Mumbai because of poor demand. Under the present bilateral air services agreement between India and Finland, Finnair can operate daily services to three Indian cities.

Asian routes continue to drive growth in the airline, which plans to increase service to Hong Kong to 12 flights a week from now daily service, besides start flying daily to Singapore from next year. Asia accounts for nearly half of the airline's revenue. Over 100 Finnish companies have operations in India and several Indian firms have set up shop in Finland. Besides, the airline hopes to carry traffic between India and the rest of Europe and to the US.