Finnair

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Finnair (Finnish: Finnair Oyj, Swedish: Finnair Abp) is the flag carrier and largest airline of Finland, with its headquarters in Vantaa on the grounds of Helsinki Airport, its hub. Finnair and its subsidiaries dominate both domestic and international air travel in Finland. Its major shareholder is the government of Finland, which owns 55.8% of the shares. Finnair is a member of the Oneworld airline alliance. In 2015, it transported over 10 million passengers to over 60 European, 13 Asian and 4 North-American destinations. At the end of 2016, the airline employed 4,937 people.

Finnair is the sixth oldest airline in continuous operation. With no fatal or hull-loss accidents since 1963, Finnair is consistently one of the safest airlines in the world (#3 in 2014).

Video Finnair

History

Founding

In 1923, consul Bruno Lucander founded Finnair as Aero O/Y (Aero Ltd). The company code, "AY", originates from this; AY stands for Aero Yhtiö ("yhtiö" means "company" in Finnish). Lucander had previously run the Finnish operations of the Estonian airline Aeronaut. In mid-1923 he concluded an agreement with Junkers Flugzeugwerke AG to provide aircraft and technical support in exchange for a 50% ownership in the new airline. The charter establishing the company was signed in Helsinki on 12 September 1923, and the company was entered into the trade register on 11 December 1923. The first flight was on 20 March 1924 from Helsinki to Tallinn, Estonia on a Junkers F.13 aircraft equipped with floats. The seaplane service ended in December 1936 following the construction of the first aerodromes in Finland.

World War II

Air raids on Helsinki and other Finnish cities made World War II a difficult period for the airline. Half the fleet was requisitioned by the Finnish Air Force and it is estimated that, during the Winter War of 1939 and 1940, half of the airline's passengers from other Finnish cities were children being evacuated to Sweden.

Immediate postwar period

The Finnish government wanted longer routes so it acquired a majority stake in the company in 1946 and re-established services to Europe in November 1947, initially using the Douglas DC-3. In 1953, the airline began branding itself as Finnair. The Convair 440 twin-engined pressurised airliner was acquired from January 1953 and these faster aircraft were operated on the company's longer routes as far as London.

Jet Age (1970s)

In 1961, Finnair joined the jet age by adding Rolls-Royce Avon-engined Caravelles to its fleet. These were later exchanged with the manufacturer for Pratt & Whitney JT8D-engined Super Caravelles. In 1962, Finnair acquired a 27% controlling interest in a private Finnish airline, Kar-Air. Finnair Oy became the company's official name on 25 June 1968. In 1969, it took possession of its first U.S. made jet, a Douglas DC-8. The first transatlantic service to New York was inaugurated on 15 May 1969. In the 1960s Finnair's head office was in Helsinki.

Finnair received its first widebody aircraft in 1975, two DC-10-30 planes. The first of these arrived on 4 February 1975 and entered service on 14 February 1975, flying between Helsinki and New York, and later also between Helsinki and Las Palmas.

In 1979, Finnair established a subsidiary company Finnaviation for domestic operations, with a 60% stake.

Expansion (1980s)

In 1981, Finnair opened routes to Seattle and Los Angeles, Finnair became the first operator to fly non-stop from Western Europe to Japan operating Helsinki-Tokyo flights with a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30ER in 1983. Until then, flights had to go via Moscow (Aeroflot, SAS, BA) or Anchorage (most carriers) due to Soviet airspace restrictions, but Finnair circumvented these by flying directly north from Helsinki, over the North Pole and back south through the Bering Strait, avoiding the Soviet airspace. However, Finnair did not have to make a roundabout because of the Soviet regulation on this route, but the Japanese authority demanded it (what JAL requested strongly). The aircraft was fitted with extra fuel tanks, taking 13 hours for the trip. The routes through Soviet airspace and with a stopover in Moscow also took 13 hours, but flights with a stopover at Anchorage took up to 16 hours, giving Finnair a competitive edge. In the spring of 1986, Soviet regulators finally cleared the way for Air France and Japan Airlines to fly nonstop Paris-Tokyo services over Soviet airspace, putting Finnair at a disadvantage.

Finnair launched a Helsinki-Beijing route in 1988, making Finnair the first Western European carrier to fly non-stop between Europe and China. In 1989, Finnair became the launch customer for the McDonnell Douglas MD-11, the first of which was delivered on 7 December 1990. The first revenue service with the MD-11 took place on 20 December 1990, with OH-LGA operating a flight from Helsinki to Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

Subsidiary airlines (1990s-2000s)

In 1997, the subsidiaries Kar-Air and Finnaviation became wholly owned by Finnair and were integrated into the mainline operations. On 25 September 1997, the company's official name was changed to Finnair Oyj.

In 1999, Finnair joined the Oneworld airline alliance. In 2001, Finnair reused the name "Aero" when establishing Aero Airlines, a subsidiary airline based in Tallinn, Estonia.

In 2003, Finnair acquired ownership of the Swedish low-cost airline, FlyNordic, which operated mainly within Scandinavia. In 2007, Finnair sold all its shares in FlyNordic to Norwegian Air Shuttle. As part of the transaction, Finnair acquired 4.8% of the latter company, becoming its third largest shareholder. Finnair later sold their shares in 2013.

On 8 March 2007, Finnair became the first airline to order the Airbus A350 XWB aircraft, placing an order for 11 Airbus A350 XWB (plus 8 options), with delivery to start in 2015.

Labour disputes and restructuring (2006-present)

Finnair has suffered from many labour disputes in this period, resulting from cost-cutting measures prompted by competition from budget airlines.

On 1 December 2011, Finnair transferred its baggage and apron services to Swissport International as per a five-year agreement signed on 7 November 2011.

Maps Finnair

Corporate affairs

Ownership and structure

The Group's parent company is Finnair Plc, which is listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki Stock Exchange and is domiciled in Helsinki at the registered address Tietotie 9, Vantaa. The State of Finland is the controlling shareholder (55.8%), with no other shareholder owning more that 5% of shares.

Subsidiaries and associates

Finnair Cargo

Two subsidiary companies, Finnair Cargo Oy and Finnair Cargo Terminal Operations Oy, form Finnair's cargo business. The offices of both companies are at Helsinki Airport. Finnair Cargo uses currently Finnair's fleet on its cargo operations.

Finnair Cargo has three hubs:

Helsinki Airport: Helsinki Airport is the main hub of Finnair Cargo. There is a new freight terminal under construction at the airport, scheduled to be opened in the first half of 2017.
Brussels Airport: Finnair Cargo has used Brussels Airport as a secondary hub for freight operations. Now the cargo airline operates its flights from BRU in co-operation with DHL Aviation (EAT Leipzig).
London Heathrow Airport: Heathrow Airport is the most recent hub addition to Finnair Cargo's route network. In co-operation with IAG Cargo, Finnair operates to LHR five times a week with Airbus A350 to carry extra freight.

Nordic Regional Airlines

Nordic Regional Airlines (Norra) is 40% owned by Finnair. The airline uses ATR 72-500 leased from Finnair and Embraer E190 aircraft. All Embraer aircraft are painted in Finnair livery. The airline began operations on 20 October 2011 as a joint venture between Flybe and Finnair. The airline has operated under Finnair's flight code since 1 May 2015.

Business trends

The key trends for Finnair over recent years are shown below (as at year ending 31 December):

Head office

In 2013, Finnair opened its new head office, known as House of Travel and Transportation (or "HOTT"), on what used to be a car park right next to its previous head office located in Tietotie 11, on the grounds of Helsinki Airport. The construction of HOTT began in July 2011 and finished on time in June 2013. The previous head office had been in use since 1994, then replacing a head office located in Helsinki city centre.

The new mixed-use head office has a total floor space of 70,000 square metres (750,000 sq ft) and 22,400 square metres (241,000 sq ft) of office space.

Corporate design

Livery

The company revealed a new livery in December 2010. Major changes include a restyled and larger lettering on the body, repainting of the engines in white, and a reversal of the color scheme for the tail fin favoring a white background with a blue stylized logo. The outline of the globe was also removed from the tail fin.

Flight attendant uniforms

The current uniform was designed by Ritva-Liisa Pohjalainen and launched in December 2011. Finnair has codes to indicate the rank of crew members: one stripe in the sleeve for normal cabin attendant, two stripes for senior cabin crew (only for outsourced crew) acting as a purser in Hong Kong, Singapore and Spain flights, and three stripes for a purser/chief purser. Additionally, female pursers have a white vertical stripe on their dresses or blouses. Finnair requires its cabin crew to wear gloves during take-off and landing for safety reasons. Finnair's previous cabin crew uniform was named the fifth most stylish uniform by the French magazine Bon Voyage.

Partnerships

Finnair has several partnerships with following companies and airlines including Alaska Airlines, Deutsche Bahn (DB) and Chinese JD.com.

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Destinations

Finnair flies from its Helsinki hub to over 110 destinations in 37 countries in Asia, Europe and North America.

Europe and domestic

Europe is Finnair's main market. Some domestic and European flights are partly carried on behalf of Finnair by Nordic Regional Airlines, using ATR and Embraer aircraft. Finnair operates flights to Europe using the Airbus A320-family. Some of Finnair's daily flights to London are operated using an Airbus A350 XWB.

During the past few years, Finnair has launched several new routes to Europe and switched some from charter to scheduled flights. In the 2016 summer season, Finnair added four new scheduled routes in Europe, while 8 charter/leisure routes were converted to scheduled service. Those routes are from Helsinki to Billund, Edinburgh, Mytilene, Preveza, Pula, Rimini, Santorini, Skiathos, Varna, Verona and Zakinthos. In the summer season of 2017, Finnair began flying to several new destinations including Alicante, Corfu, Ibiza, Menorca and Reykjavík (Keflavík). In 2017, Finnair will see the fastest growth in the airline's history by adding capacity to numerous destinations in Europe as well as in Asia and Latin America. In 2018, Finnair will resume flights to Lisbon and Stuttgart. The growth will continue in winter 2018 as the airline will add up to 100 weekly flights, mostly within Europe.

Asia

Asia is also an important market for Finnair. It serves around 20 destinations in Asia from its hub at Helsinki Airport with over 80 weekly frequencies. Currently, most of the Asian routes are operated by Airbus A350 aircraft but some flights with Airbus A330-300.

Finnair began service to Asia in 1976 with carrier's first non-stop route to Bangkok. Seven years later, in 1983, the carrier opened its first non-stop route to Eastern Asia, to Tokyo, Japan. In 1988 the airline started service to Beijing, its first destination in China.

China has become one of the Finnair's main markets, along with Japan. Following the route to Beijing, the airline opened four more destinations in China: Shanghai in 2003, Guangzhou in 2005 (which ended in 2008 and resumed in 2016), Chongqing in 2012 and Xi'an in 2013. In addition, Finnair will open a new thrice-weekly service to Nanjing on 13 May 2018, which will be the sixth destination in mainland China. The airline also has a 10 weekly service to Hong Kong. In Japan, Finnair has four destinations, which is the highest number of the destinations in Japan among the European airlines. These are Fukuoka which commenced in 2016, Nagoya, Osaka (a new route to Osaka opened in 1995 and was the 5th intercontinental destination) and Tokyo. In summer 2018, the airline will have up to 35 weekly flights to Japan as well as to China. Seoul in South Korea is also among the growing destinations by passengers carried.

Finnair flies to several destinations in Southeastern Asia. India has been in the airline's network from 2007 when service to Delhi started. Flights to Mumbai started in 2008 but were canceled in the same year due to the global financial crisis. The airline also planned services to Bangalore and Chennai. In addition, Finnair had a charter service to Goa but is now operated as a scheduled service. The route was previously operated via Dubai. In the area, Finnair has also served Colombo. Thailand is served by three Finnair services to Bangkok, Krabi and Phuket, all of which are operated with A350. In Vietnam there is a service to Ho Chi Minh City and, previously, to Hanoi. In Southeast Asia, Finnair also has a service to Singapore.

On 20 June 2017, Finnair started its first route to Central Asia: Astana. The service is operated twice a week in the summer season.

In March 2013, Finnair announced that it was considering the following 13 potential new Asian destinations: Bangalore, Busan, Changsha, Chennai, Hangzhou, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Kunming, Manila, Mumbai, Sapporo, Tianjin and Ulaanbaatar. Fukuoka was also included but the airline already commenced flights in May 2016. In 2006 Finnair planned to launch a service to Kuala Lumpur which was planned go via Bangkok. However, Finnair canceled the plan and switched the Helsinki-Singapore route to non-stop. Previously, it was operated via Bangkok.

The Middle East

In the Middle East Finnair has a few destinations including Dubai in the United Arab Emirates together with Tel Aviv and Eilat in Israel. Finnair operates to Dubai 6x times a week in the winter season. Tel Aviv will be operated 3x times a week from summer 2018 and Eilat twice a week in the winter season. In the Middle East, Finnair has also served Bahrain and Jordan.

Americas

Finnair has served North America since 1969: its first intercontinental route started on 15 May 1969 to New York City via Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Besides New York, Finnair flies to Chicago, San Francisco and Miami in the United States. Previously the airline also flew to Boston, Detroit, Dallas, Los Angeles and Seattle. In Canada the carrier previously operated flights to Halifax, Montréal and Toronto. Halifax was used as a stopover on the carrier's Caribbean flights.

On 25 September 2015, Finnair announced that the airline will make Miami route a year-round and add more frequencies to Chicago due to an increase in demand. While Finnair made Miami a year-round route, the airline discontinued its Toronto service. Now Finnair has five scheduled routes to North-America: Miami with three weekly frequencies in the winter season, New York with daily service and Chicago, a summer seasonal route with daily service from 2018, a thrice-weekly San Francisco service and once weekly service to Puerto Vallarta. It is possible that Finnair may resume service to some other North American destinations such as Los Angeles and the airline's former Canadian destinations in the future due to increased demand.

From December 2017 Finnair will fly to several destinations in the Caribbean including Havana and Puerto Plata, and on the Pacific Ocean coast such as Puerto Vallarta. Those destinations were previously served by charter flights but all of them will be switched to scheduled service. These routes are Finnair's first scheduled routes to Latin America. Puerto Vallarta is Finnair's first destination in North America that is regularly served with Airbus A350 and its the longest route. In Latin America, Finnair has flown to cities such as Recife, Fortaleza, Panama, Holguin, Varadero, Cartagena, and Margarita.

Codeshare agreements

Finnair codeshares with the following airlines:

Interline agreements

Finnair has interlining agreements with the following airlines:

Vistara

Alliance

Finnair is a member of Oneworld, an airline alliance.

The First A350 Finnair Test flight: Takeoff and Landing - YouTube

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Fleet

Current fleet

As of November 2017, the Finnair fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Aircraft types

Narrow-body aircraft

Finnair utilizes Airbus A319, A320 and A321 aircraft on domestic and European flights. Airbus A321-231 is also used on some long-haul flights such as to Dubai. ATR 72-500 and Embraer E190 are operated by Nordic Regional Airlines and are also used on domestic and European flights.

Airbus A330

Finnair currently has eight Airbus A330-300 aircraft in the fleet. As of December 2017, the airline utilizes A330 on intercontinental flights from Helsinki to Chicago, Chongqing, Delhi, Fukuoka, Goa, Guangzhou, Miami, Nagoya, New York, Puerto Plata, San Francisco, Tokyo, Varadero and Xi'an. As of May 2018, Finnair will be using A330 also on flights to Nanjing.

Airbus A350

On 8 March 2007, Finnair firmed up its orders for 11 Airbus A350-900 aircraft with 8 options. On 3 December 2014, it was announced that Finnair had firmed up the contract for 8 additional Airbus A350-900 aircraft deliveries starting in 2018. On 13 August 2014, Finnair announced plans to initially deploy its A350-900 aircraft on services to Bangkok, Beijing and Shanghai from 2015, with A350 services to Hong Kong and Singapore to be added in 2016. Currently Finnair operates the Airbus A350 to Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. Finnair also operated A350 aircraft on several flights to New York in January 2016 and became the first European airline to operate the A350 to the United States. Finnair uses the A350 on some scheduled flights from Helsinki to Brussels and London to carry extra freight as well. Havana and Puerto Vallarta will be added to Finnair's A350 network at the end of 2017.

Finnair took delivery of its first A350-900 XWB aircraft on 7 October 2015, becoming the third airline to operate the aircraft, after Qatar Airways and Vietnam Airlines. According to the currently anticipated delivery schedule, it will have five A350 XWB aircraft at the beginning of the second quarter of 2016, seven by the end of 2016, 11 by the end of 2017, and 19 by the end of 2023.

Fleet gallery

Hover over each photo to view label detail

Future fleet plans

Due to an aging narrow-body fleet, Finnair plans to retire the Airbus A320-family by 2022. The airline plans to replace old aircraft by 30 new Airbus A320neo or Boeing 737 MAX new-generation aircraft. The airline also has options for Airbus A350-1000 aircraft.

Finnair announced the order for 11 Airbus A350 XWB aircraft and 8 options on 8 March 2007. Finnair planned to retire older Airbus A340 aircraft by the end of 2017 and replace them with brand new A350 aircraft. As of 1 February 2017, all Airbus A340 aircraft are exited from the fleet. The very last A340 (OH-LQE) operated its last flight from Tokyo to Helsinki on 1 February 2017. Finnair firmed up orders for eight additional A350 aircraft on 3 December 2014. The first A350 was delivered to Finnair in October 2015 and the airline became the first European operator of the Airbus A350.

Finnair has modified its previous fleet plan to retire two of Airbus A330 aircraft, which was established in 2014. The 2016 fleet plan now involves keeping its A330 fleet as its A350s are delivered, rather than withdrawing two of them in 2017, and shall retire those aircraft in the 2020s at the earliest. Airline's plan to retire two A330s was not the only change that was planned. Under the previous plan, the long haul fleet was to grow by one per year, from 15 in 2015 to 20 in 2020. Under the 2016 plan it will now grow to 22 in 2020, and to 26 in 2023. However, should market conditions be weaker than expected, Finnair has the flexibility to return the wide-body fleet to a total of 15 aircraft in 2019 and to maintain it at this level through to 2023. Some of the new A350 aircraft will increase the number of aircraft operated by Finnair. The Finnish flag carrier now has 11 A350-900s and a further 8 to be delivered by 2023 (two more in 2018 and 2019, and then one in each of 2020 to 2023).

In the beginning of 2017, Finnair revealed plans to add more seats to Airbus A350 aircraft. Finnair's new A350 aircraft will have 32 seats in Business Class, 42 seats in Economy Comfort Class, 262 in Economy Class and total of 336 seats. This new seat configuration will be used on airline's routes from Helsinki to Bangkok, Beijing and Seoul. Finnair will introduce the new seat configuration in remaining A350-900s.

The Finnair-branded short haul network also includes 24 regional aircraft operated by Nordic Regional Airlines (12 ATR72 and 12 E190). The combined narrowbody/regional fleet comprised a total of 54 aircraft the end of Mar-2016. This total is set to climb only to 55 in 2023, with downside flexibility to fall to 17. Finnair plans for the A320 family fleet to grow to 36 aircraft in 2020, with the A319 fleet falling to seven and the A321 fleet rising to 19.

On 18 December 2015, Finnair decided to improve the space efficiency of its current Airbus narrow-body fleet due to a growing need for feeder traffic capacity. The value of the investment is approximately EUR 40 million, and it includes 22 narrow-body Airbus aircraft in Finnair's fleet. The cabin layout change excludes five A321ER aircraft, which are already configured according to the plan, having 209 seats. The cabin reconfiguration is estimated to take two weeks per aircraft during 2017. The reconfiguration adds 6 to 13 seats depending on the aircraft type, increasing the passenger capacity of Finnair's Airbus narrow-body fleet as measured by available seat kilometers by close to 4 percent. Finnair also has planned to increase the number of its narrow-body fleet. As a first step, Finnair will lease eight Airbus A321 narrow-body aircraft.

In March 2016, Finnair announced to lease two Airbus A321 aircraft from Air Berlin for Finnair's European operations. These two aircraft were delivered in late April 2016 to Finnair. The airline has used these A321s on flights from Helsinki to Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Dubrovnik, Düsseldorf, Ljubljana, Paris, Split, Vienna and Zürich.

On 15 December 2016, Finnair announced to lease two Airbus A321s from CDB Aviation Lease Finance. The first aircraft is scheduled for delivery to Finnair for the winter season 2017/2018 and the second for the summer season 2018. Seven of the ordered aircraft will be delivered in 2017.

Special liveries

Finnair's current special liveries are Marimekko "Kivet", Marimekko-50th Anniversary "Unikko", Oneworld-liveries, and the Christmas special "Reindeer" liveries. Finnair has also used special liveries, including the "Marimekko Unikko", "Moomins", "Santa Claus", 1950s retro livery and Angry Birds.

Historical fleet

Finnair has previously operated the following equipment:

Finnair grounded: Norway refuses to allow direct flights between ...

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Services

Finnair Plus

Finnair Plus is Finnair's frequent-flyer programme. Passengers are awarded points based on the type and class of flight flown. Once enough miles are banked into the passenger's account, a membership tier (Basic, Silver, Gold or Platinum) is awarded. There is a Junior tier exclusively for minors. Silver, Gold, and Platinum members have privileges such as premium check-in desks and priority boarding.

Finnair offers frequent-flyer partnerships with Nordic Regional Airlines (only for the 2000 flight number series, not for domestic flights) in addition to those in the Oneworld alliance:

In addition to earning points on flights with Finnair and its partner airlines, Finnair Plus members can earn points through various hotel and car rental partners in Finland and around the world along with other service partners.

Finnair lounges

Finnair operates three own lounges at Helsinki Airport. One is accessible in the Schengen Area by travelers in Finnair's Business Class, Gold and Platinum of the Finnair Plus program members as well as Oneworld Sapphire and Emerald members. The two other are located in the non-Schengen area and the Finnair Business Lounge has the same access criteria as the one in the Schengen area except Japan Airlines Business Class passengers also have access. Finnair also operates a Premium Lounge next to the Business lounge in the non-Schengen area that Gold and Platinum of the Finnair Plus program members have access to as well as Oneworld Emerald members have access to. The non-Schengen lounges have a Finnish sauna. The remaining international destinations are served with contract lounges.

Economy Comfort

Economy Comfort is Finnair's new premium economy product debuting on long haul aircraft December 2014. It will not be a separate class but more of an upgraded economy product, much like Delta's Economy Comfort class. Economy Comfort seats will be located in the first 5 rows of economy providing 34-36" of pitch (3-5" more pitch than standard economy seats) and a comfier headrest, plus noise canceling headphones and a comfort kit. Seats will be free to Finnair Plus and oneworld elites and passengers with a full fare coach ticket, and available to all other customers for a fee.

Meals and drinks

On most European flights, a cold salad or sandwich is served, together with non-alcoholic beverages. Alcoholic beverages and additional food items are available for purchase. Domestic flights as well as shorter European flights have snacks for sale and free non-alcoholic beverages. Business class offers warm meals and free beverages, including alcohol. On most Intercontinental flights there is a choice of meals in economy class. In inter-continental business class on most Airbus aircraft (excluding those with fully lie-flat seats), there is a dedicated snack bar. As of November 2014 the complementary salad or sandwich is discontinued and beverages have been limited to coffee, tea, water, milk and blueberry juice on European flights.

In-flight entertainment

All Finnair aircraft have LCD video monitors or personal entertainment systems except the Embraer 170s and 190s and the Airbus A321-231 (Sharklet). Airbus A320 series aircraft have monitors showing exterior shots, moving-map systems and mute television programs. Airbus A330, Airbus A340 and Airbus A350 aircraft have an AVOD personal entertainment system on all seats with about 72 movies, 150 TV shows, 200 music albums, 24 radio channels and 15 games.

In-flight magazine

Finnair's English-language in-flight magazine, Blue Wings, is published 10 times a year by the Finnish media group Sanoma. The first edition of Blue Wings magazine was published in 1980. There are domestic and international newspapers on all flights and magazines on long-haul flights in business class.

OH-LHD Finnair McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 Photo by Adolfo Bento de ...

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Awards

Finnair A330-300 Helsinki to Tokyo-Narita - YouTube