Industry Finnair receives A350 ahead of delivery schedule

In its annual General Meeting, Finnair’s CEO Pekka Vauramo has announced the decision to accelerate the delivery of two long-haul aircraft. The first of these two aircraft will be delivered to Finnair in 2019 instead of 2023, as communicated earlier. The second one will be delivered in 2020 instead of 2022.

Vauramo stated that the growing demand on its flights to Asian destinations is the major reason for the earlier delivery: “The Asian strategy that our predecessors created in their time has been the right choice. The strategy of the past few years, built on accelerated growth, improving customer and people experience and on renewal, has taken Finnair forward. Our growth continues: We have now made decisions to receive two A350s ahead of the original delivery schedule.”

Finnair has ordered a total of 19 Airbus A350-900, of which eleven have been delivered in the last months. The schedule for the remaining eight A350 deliveries is now the following: one in the last quarter of 2018, two in 2019, two in 2020, two in 2021 and one in 2022.

Finnair has two different seat configurations for its A350: Either with 46 seats in business, 43 in premium economy and 208 in economy class or 32 in business, 42 in premium economy and 262 in economy class. Beside its eleven A350, Finnair operates a fleet of eight Airbus A330-300, mostly on flights from Helsinki to destinations in the US (Chicago, New York, San Francisco) and Asia.

In the last years, Finnair has focused on developing into a leading European carrier for flights to Asian destinations. From its hub at Helsinki Airport, the carrier operates daily flights to several Asian destinations including Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bangkok, Beijing and Seoul with connections to its entire European network. Additionally, tourism in Finland is growing fast which leads to a higher demand for capacity.

“Tourism to the Nordics has now really taken off. Finnair plays a significant role in bringing Asian and European travelers to Finland,” Vauramo said.