Foreign carriers find flying to new India profitable

International carriers, who survived the airline industry slump in 2001 and are seeking to consolidate gains, find flying to an economically resurgent India a profitable proposition.

All international airlines that are on an expansion mode have made it a point to add an India gateway to their plans, be it Finnish national carrier Finnair, Delta Airlines or UAE's budget carrier Air Arabia.

Already, the likes of Qantas, which withdrew service post September 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, has resumed flights to India. But the new entrants are confident that the India service would add to profits.

"When we (some years back) looked at the market from the tourism and culture point... We were very reluctant (to start services)... But expanding economy has convinced us that the service will be up and working," Henrik Arle, deputy CEO of Finnair, said.

Finnair, which launched its first scheduled direct service between Helsinki and New Delhi on October 30, hopes to cater to business travellers, given the large number of Finnish companies, including Nokia, that have operations in India and vice-versa.

The carrier is also looking at long term contracts with freight forwarders to tap into the cargo potential and hopes that cargo would account for 20-30% of it revenues from the India service.