Finnair is planning to quadruple its frequency to India by adding four more services a week, starting June this year. Moreover, the Finnish carrier also intends to add a new route to Mumbai from Helsinki, making the Indian city its second destination after New Delhi .

After the increase in services, the carrier will have 12 weekly flights to the country, an increase from its existing three services.

Finnair would increase the number of flights operating on the Delhi-Helsinki route to seven days in a week from the present three by May. In addition, Finnair would also start operations on the Mumbai-Helsinki route from June with five flights a week.

The airline will announce its fares for the Mumbai-Helsinki route next week. Mumbai would be Finnair's eleventh destination in Asia.

"A good response to our existing services has prompted us to add a new destination in India and to increase our weekly flights to Delhi . We are expecting a large number of Indian visitors to Finland and other Scandinavian countries using Helsinki as a hub to European destinations," Finnair Director (Indian sub-continent) Taina Tornstrom said.

At present, the carrier has 14 arrivals and departure slots in the country, with seven each in Mumbai and Delhi .

The growing traffic on Indian airports was also a reason for the increase in services, as the carrier wanted to utilise its existing slots, she said.

Finnair had launched its operations in India by commencing the Delhi-Helsinki flight in October last year. The carrier plans to introduce introductory fares on the Mumbai route, similar to those offered initially on the Delhi-Helsinki route.

The carrier had commenced its operations three months ago, and during the 90-day-period its load factors rose close to 85 per cent on the Delhi-Helsinki route. The company is hoping to maintain similar load factors in the coming months and it expects the additional load factor to catalyse this growth.

Finnair operates the Delhi-Helsinki route with MB 11 that can carry around 286 passengers. The carrier also plans to start operations on the Mumbai route using an Airbus A-340 that can carry around 300 passengers.

The airline is also planning to increase its services to China by increasing the frequency of services from the present 25 flights a week. Finnair will increase the number of flights to Guangzhou, China , while it is also planning to add services on its Hong Kong destination.

Meanwhile, it is planning to stop services between Bangkok, Thailand , and Singapore and drop plans to open a new route to Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia .

Finnair carried 8.8 million passengers in 2006, an increase of 3.5 per cent, from 2005. The highest growth of 27.3 per cent came from Asia.