Finnair has expressed interest in developing various agreements with Malaysia Airlines (MAS), including a code-share agreement. Besides the fact that Finnair will be the first Scandinavian airline to fly into Kuala Lumpur International Airport in May next year, according to Australian e-Travel Blackboard.
“There are a lot of areas that both Finnair and MAS can work together in. We hope to meet up with MAS as soon as possible” stated Hanuu Sundberg, the area vice-president (commercial) for Europe, Asia and the America.
Finnair will fly from Helsinki to Kuala Lumpur via Bangkok three times a week, starting from May 21, 2007. The flights will be on Tuesdays, Thursday, and Saturdays. Moreover, the carrier has the option of increasing flights to 7 times a week under the Air Services Agreement signed between Malaysia and Finland.
“Finnair now has traffic rights between Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur and the airline wants to take advantage of this,” Sundberg added.
Sundberg said Finland could be a gateway for travelers from Malaysia to the Scandinavian countries and other parts of Europe.
“The demand for Asian destinations is growing in both directions and we have excellent connections to and from Europe. It is our goal to open or two new Asian destinations each year and add frequencies to our current network,” Sundberg continued.
“We see Malaysia as an interesting destination to further enhance our Asian network. We are confident that we will be able to sell Malaysia and to see a healthy load factor for this new service.”
