Lifted by heavy demand on the India segment, Nordic carrier Finnair has registered a 26% growth in Asian traffic this summer.

Finnair's president and chief executive Mika Vehvilainen, said, "The demand for Asian traffic is growing noticeably. We are increasing our capacity to destinations in Asia. Next summer, we will open a new non-stop route to Singapore."

According to airline officials, passenger load factor for Finnair from Asia was among the highest for any segment.

India, where the airline flies six days a week to New Delhi from here, was a major contributor.

Load factor refers to number of actual passengers flown for every 100 seats.

For India for which the carrier has deployed its latest fleet, with an average age of no more than six months -- the passenger load factor for the first three months was 91 percent, 84 percent and over 95 percent respectively.

In a statement, the airline said, "One significant factor is that the demand for business class has increased by almost 40 percent. On Asian flights, the number of passengers in business class increased by over 50 percent." (With Inputs from Agencies)