Finnair Plus - Finnair to acquire sixth MD-11 for growing Asian traffic




JuPe
Dec 29, 03, 1:21 am
Let's hope that the sixth MD-11 won't as bad as the fifth addition. I would really hope that AY would even start to consider upgrading the whole MD-11 fleet.

Finnair to acquire sixth MD-11 for growing Asian traffic

Finnair has decided to acquire a sixth MD-11 for its long-haul fleet. The agreement on the lease of the MD-11 wide-body aircraft has been signed with Boeing Capital Corporation. The aircraft is to join the Finnair fleet towards the end of spring 2004.

As of June 2004, the additional capacity brought by the aircraft will be used to increase frequencies to Finnair's current Asian destinations. The strong Asian emphasis of Finnair's long-haul strategy has proved to be the correct choice as Asia is the fastest growing air transport market area.

"A fifth MD-11 was added to the Finnair fleet in the beginning of 2003 and so the newcomer will add to the number of long-haul aircraft. Next summer we will have 50 per cent more capacity in our long-haul traffic compared to early 2003," says Finnair COO and EVP Scheduled Passenger Traffic Henrik Arle.

Finnair currently operates over twenty weekly frequencies to Asian destinations. From the start of the summer schedule in March, the number of weekly flights to Beijing will increase from five to six. As of June 1st, Beijing flights will become daily. Finnair's other destinations in Asia are Bangkok, with daily frequencies, Hong Kong, Osaka, Tokyo, Shanghai and Singapore.

Demand on Finnair's Asian routes has grown by almost 40 per cent during this past autumn compared with autumn 2002. The majority of passengers on the Asian routes are from Asia. A quarter of Finnair passenger and cargo revenues come from Asia meaning that it is the second largest source of income after European traffic and more significant than domestic traffic. The growing Asian traffic is also increasing passenger numbers on European routes. Demand in Finnair's scheduled traffic grew over 20 per cent in November.

The MD-11 aircraft has over 280 passenger seats of which 42 are in Business Class.

Finnair Plc
Communications
23.12.2003


airoli
Dec 29, 03, 4:59 pm
I suppose this will be one of the old Swissair planes standing around in the desert?

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truly yours. airOli.
March 1st 2004: Morgestraich Do! (http://www.olimade.com/morgestraich)

NoWindowSeat
Dec 30, 03, 9:21 am
I agree that they should atleast start to consider their future wide-body aircraft, haven't seen any public discussion on this issue since when they made the decision to go for A320series as DC9/MD8x replacement.

Before that, mid 90's, it was really close that Finnair would have chosen Boeing as their partner, then it was mention that B767 would replase MD11s (and DC10s/A300s which they had a few also at that time). I personally like MD11 as a plane when it's configured accordingly, but a tri-jet isn't by any standard the right economical choice today, more like a historical thing left from '2 engines is not enough to fly over oceans' -era.

What do you guys think, or hope, Finnair will choose?


Blueskies
Dec 30, 03, 10:16 am
The Swissair planes are PW-powered, which makes them unsuitable for Finnair, because all AY MD-11s are GE-powered. Therefore the sixth MD-11 will most probably also be ex-CityBird plane like the OH-LGE.

Regarding the future AY longhaul fleet, I think Airbus will be chosen. My guess is that they will go for A340-600 because of good cargo capability. A343/A333s might be just a little bit to small for AY.

Greetings,
Blueskies




[This message has been edited by Blueskies (edited Dec 30, 2003).]

JuPe
Dec 31, 03, 12:38 am
I would go for A346. As Blueskies said AY also needs good cargo space. According to what I've been hearing from some AY people, it doesn't matter if the cabin is not filled with passengers as long as there's plenty of cargo.

My personal experiences from A340-200/300 are also good (especially reduced noise in the cabin).



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