Video: Behind the scenes at Finnair's network control centre

Finnair has always marketed itself as an airline offering fast connections. In India they target the India to US traffic, while from the far and near east they offer fast connectivity in to Europe. To achieve this, the airline needs a state of the art network control centre (NCC) that monitors developments across the world that may affect flight operations, both within the airline and external factors. Below are two videos that offer a brief glimpse of the many people who work behind the scenes to ensure smooth and trouble-free operations.

As with any connection based airline, Finnair needs to have all its flights landing and departing in a fixed time frame to ensure passengers can change their flights and connect. The second video shows how the Finnair NCC works through the night to handle the 'rush hour' traffic of the early morning at its hub and home airport in Helsinki.

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Japan Airlines faces much smaller impact of Boeing 787 grounding

by Devesh Agarwal

The impact of the month old grounding of their Boeing 787 Dreamliners on Japan Airlines (JAL) appears to much smaller when compared to fellow Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA). "We operated only six Dreamliners out of a fleet of 200 aircraft, so the total impact of the Dreamliner grounding on us is very small" JAL CEO Masaru Onishi told Bangalore Aviation on the sidelines of the Oneworld event to mark the entry of Malaysia Airlines in to the alliance, on January 31.

Onishi-san explained that JAL operated six Dreamliners to Boston, San Diego, Singapore and Moscow, keeping one aircraft spare, a much smaller number when compared to the 24 Dreamliners in the fleet of fellow Japanese carrier ANA.

Keeping in mind his airline's focus on passenger convenience, he went on to say, that JAL had minimised disruptions by deploying Boeing 777s on the higher demand routes serviced by the 787, and 767s on the lower demand routes. JAL had also transferred some of its passengers on to fellow oneworld member American Airlines. While JAL did not transfer any passenger on to ANA, they did receive transferred passengers of ANA.

One route that was affected was Tokyo Narita - San Diego, which was specifically planned for 787 operations only. For JAL to operate the flight using 777s, the airline had to take specific certifications which take about three weeks. The airline has already commenced the certification process, but the San Diego flight is suspended till JAL completes the formalities and obtains the certification. [Editor's note: This morning Japan Airlines announced that it was indefinitely delaying the launch of its Narita Helsinki route, scheduled to commence on February 25.]

On operating costs, Onishi san conceded that airline was taking a hit. "With [Boeing] 777s we achieve about 60% passenger load factor compared to 80%+ in the 787s."

Onishi-san also appeared to be resigned to the fact, that the battery problem, which has resulted in the grounding of the global 787 fleet, is not going to be resolved any time soon. "We have had discussions with Boeing and they are doing their best to fix it [the problem], and we hope they do it within two months, but I cannot say for sure".

When asked what will be Japan Airlines' stand on compensation or their order book especially if the fix took longer than the anticipated two months, Onishi san refused to speculate, saying "Let us not focus on such issues right now. More important is the fix."

Onishi-san also indicated that JAL is committed to its 787 orders.

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Video: Om Shanti Om - Finnair crew dances onboard a flight to celebrate India's Republic Day

A group of Finnair cabin crew sent their greetings to India on the eve of the nation's 63rd Republic Day with a "Take OFF to Bollywood" dance aboard the carrier's flight AY021 from Helsinki to New Delhi.

Ms Helena Kaartinen a cabin crew of Finnair and a group of her colleagues came aboard the aircraft after the passengers were boarded, and performed a hip gyrating number set to Shah Rukh Khan's Om Shanti Om.

Ms. Kaartinen got the idea from a former Indian colleague based in Mumbai. She explains in depth how the idea developed.

Finnair advertises itself as having the fastest connections from India to North America. This is a great value to appeal to the airline's Indian customers. Enjoy the video and then post your thoughts via a comment.

..... and a very happy Republic Day to all of India. Don't forget to watch the "Beating of the Retreat", Sunday, 4:30pm on Doordarshan.

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Finnair to resume Mumbai Helsinki service in October upgrades Delhi to A330

Finnair who are withdrawing their Mumbai services for the summer, has decided to resume its Mumbai operations from October with it's newly inducted Airbus A330-300 fleet.

Kari Stolbow, director for the Indian subcontinent has indicated to IANS the carrier will re-start Mumbai services from October 18, 2009. For the first week, Finnair will operate the older Boeing MD-11, after which they will deploy the A330-300 aircraft.

On May 1, Finnair upgraded the five times weekly Delhi-Helsinki-New York service with the recently inducted A330-300's. Finnair is targeting the India-US traffic with a total flight time of 16 hours and 45 minutes, just one hour more than a non-stop flight, which includes a 40 minute transit time at Helsinki. The Delhi services are expected to be increased to a daily by August.

With a morning departure, Stolbow positions the Delhi flight saying

You can have breakfast in Delhi, lunch at Helsinki and tea in New York

India was the top growth market for Finnair in Asia, which accounts for 40 percent of its revenues. The recent signs of revival in the Indian economy has obviously rubbed off positively on the airline's thinking.

In the past, Stolbow has indicated the carrier's desire to commence services to Bangalore and other southern Indian cities like Chennai, which is the base for Finnish telecom major Nokia, but the airline was being hampered by a lack of aircraft and limitations of Finalnd's bi-lateral agreement with India.

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