In May, Finnair retired its old fleet of MD-11 aircraft and started operating on the New Delhi-Helsinki-New York sector on new A330-300 aircraft, with a transit time of just 40 minutes at the Finnish capital.

'It takes just 16 hours and 45 minutes between New Delhi and New York,' Stolbow said, adding this was just an hour more than the non-stop flight of Air India. From the middle of September, this will become a daily service, against five times a week now.

From Oct 18, the carrier, thus, will operate 10 flights out of India.

According to the senior Finnair executive, who has been with the carrier for 27 years, India was the top growth market for the company in Asia, which accounts for 40 percent of its revenues.

'We surely see a revival of passenger traffic from October. Airlines generally are the first to feel the pinch of a slowdown and also benefit first during a revival.'