Originally Posted by
oliver2002
Very weird move, especially after they revamped the fleet, got in a new branding and service concept. You would think if it was planned ahead all this promotion wouldn't have taken place. AYs new concept for Finncomm and their regional E190 fleet going to BE ops must have indicated SK that its OK to emasculate the KF ops. I doubt the finnish public will like that.
I think the options were shutting down Blue1 completely or return to the original business plan of Air Botnia. Given the exchange rate etc, Blue1 probably has lower production costs than mainline SAS.
The decision to revamp the fleet was based on European expansion which turned out to be financial disaster because of lack of local demand. After withdrawing from destinations outside Continental Europe, AY began a price war against KF and the end result was quite interesting. Norwegian has often been able sell flights on the same routes&flight times for higher prices than KF which is unsustainable as their occupancy rates have been around 50-60%.