Major user airline at George Best Belfast City Airport Flybe has today announced its second agreement with a foreign major carrier inside a fortnight.

The latest agreement is with Finnish national carrier Finnair, for Flybe to provide regional services in the Scandinavian and Baltic Sea areas.

The co-operation will begin on October 31 with Flybe beginning services to key Scandinavian and Baltic markets from Helsinki airport that will include the cities of Tampere and Turku in Finland and the Estonian capital Tallinn. This service is expected to grow beyond three aircraft in the summer of 2011.

Flybe and Finnair have also agreed to begin discussions on a potential wider co-operation agreement, which could see Flybe, the UK's largest domestic airline, provide a range of services across the Nordic and Baltic Sea markets.

Recently Flybe and Air France announced a codeshare agreement which will connect passengers with Flybe in the UK regions to Air France's worldwide network through Paris Charles de Gaulle.

The codeshare will give Flybe passengers access to five additional routes between the UK and France as well as seven new domestic French routes and 11 international routes. The new codeshare agreement is expected to be in place by the end of October.