For years, we grew up on tales of Flying Finns, who broke track records. Now it's the turn of Dancing Finns, who shake a leg mid-flight, to become the talk of the town.
Three-minute jig
When cabin crew members of Finnair broke into a surprise jig on a Delhi-bound Airbus 330 flight from Helsinki on January 26, not only did it captivate the few hundred passengers on board, but very soon the dance video became a viral hit on YouTube. And, the airline is getting a lot of flying mileage out of the so-called ‘impromptu dance'.
As a tribute to India's Republic Day, the Finnish Air crew dressed in flashy
Barely had the flight landed in Delhi on January 26 morning than a video of that got uploaded on YouTube with the message that on the occasion of India's Republic Day, “the crew was extremely happy to Bolly through the woods”.
The European airline claims to have a mega hit on its hands now. “We have got just under one million hits on YouTube already and going up by the minute. It's a global hit,” crows the Finn Air spokesperson in Delhi.
Image consultant Mr Dilip Cherian says that something as dramatic as this is bound to get eyeballs. “First there was the unexpected element. Nobody expects a Finnair to do it. And, second, flash mobs and flash dances are the flavour of the season,” he says.
The airline has smartly capitalised on the pulse of the market and gone beyond the traditional tirangaa mithais (tri-coloured sweets) or the little flags that an Air India or a Kingfisher Airlines used to distribute to passengers to mark Republic Day.
The Bollywood-style tribute is not surprising. Finnair, which operates an A330 every day linking Delhi to Helsinki, has been marketing itself heavily in India as the shortest connection to Europe and the US. It is also assiduously wooing Bollywood producers to come and shoot in the Nordic destination.