After launching new service, Finnair to bring Santa to India !

After launching its maiden air service from Helsinki to the Indian capital Tuesday, Finnair has drawn a major promotional campaign that will see Santa Claus, the real one from the Arctic Circle, arrive in Delhi on Nov 9. The Finnish airline announced that its new service - which started with a frequency of three flights a week - will be expanded by the summer of 2007 to either five times or even a daily service.

"We have the traffic rights for a daily service to New Delhi and a daily service to Mumbai. So we will expand our operations based on the response. We'll also be looking at adding Mumbai," said Henrik Arle, Finnair's deputy chief executive. "Chennai and Bangalore are also very much on our radar," Arle, who arrived from the Finnish capital Tuesday morning on Finnair's maiden air service to India, said.

"The Helsinki-New Delhi sector is the shortest between Europe and India. So, it is of genuine interest to travellers between these destinations. We have quick connectivity to other cities in Europe as well," he added. According to Arle, the advance demand for the new route - which he says has been priced competitively - has been great, even though the service commenced only Tuesday.

"We have also seen a big increase in demand for air cargo from India to Europe. While passengers will add to our revenues, cargo will add to our profits. We can carry up to 30 tonnes of cargo," he added. Speaking about their formal launch event, Finnair officials said that Finland's best-known ambassador to the world, Santa Claus, will be here for that on Nov 9 and also visit orphanages and schools to interact with children. "I have been visiting children in India secretly during Christmas with gifts and goodwill," Santa Claus, who the Finnish say is not a mythical figure but exists in flesh and blood, had told some Indian journalists in Rovaniemi, Finland, recently.

"I am now looking forward to a formal visit to New Delhi and meet children," he had said, sitting in his cosy office in the Artic Circle, not far from the mysterious Ear Mountain where he lives with his wife, elves and his reindeer.

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