Finnair launches Mumbai flights, bookable on Avios

Finnair is having to make considerable adjustments to its network as it contends with Russian airspace closures. One of these is the (re-)launch of flights to Mumbai after a thirteen year hiatus.

The new flights will start in July with tickets going on sale today, 5th April. The flight times haven’t been published yet but they are due to operate three times a week.

Finnair is probably the airline that has been impacted the most by Russian airspace closures. Before the invasion, Finnair’s USP was its ability to pull in feeder traffic from across western and southern Europe onto shorter, more direct flights to Asia over Russia.

That is no longer possible, so it has had to divert a number of flights, increasing flight times and negating the benefits of connecting in Helsinki. As a consequence, Finnair is looking to diversify although:

“We continue to serve our key Asian destinations despite the longer routings caused by Russian airspace closure, and also have an excellent offering in Europe and North America.”

Finnair has recently launched an innovative business class product (photo above) which will be on the entire long-haul fleet by the end of 2023. You can see Rob’s review of it here.

As a British Airways partner in the oneworld alliance, you can earn and spend Avios on these flights.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2023)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.