Finnair Plus - BT wins Finnish government contract - blow to AY

I am pretty surprised and feel sorry for Finnish government employees on this news:
http://www.airbaltic.com/public/40065.html

I would assume, it's pretty significant achievement for BT and it also shows Finnish government trusts Air Baltic not to vanish near-term. Interesting, was the price difference so big, that Finnair lost the contract, although it's reliability should be better? Does anyone know more about it?

Incredible. E.g. for HEL-LED the price and the schedule needs to be pretty good to compare a connection via anywhere to a direct. Basically this deal will end flights and transfer all pax to train. I feel sorry for the travellers forced to have the connecting flights. The decision makers most likely won't be the ones travelling on the flights they've bought.

Helsinki Tallin via Riga does not make sense at all. The worst route is Helsinki-Riga-Linköping-Stavanger arriving late in the evening and the return flight leaving at 5 am.

Well AY got something back in UK:

"Finnair has won a landmark deal with the UK public sector to be the official
airline for flights from London Heathrow to Osaka Japan and flights between
Manchester and Helsinki."

http://www.finnairgroup.com/group/group_11_2_1.html?&Id=hex_200908250000430155.html

Helsinki Tallin via Riga does not make sense at all. The worst route is Helsinki-Riga-Linköping-Stavanger arriving late in the evening and the return flight leaving at 5 am.

I wonder, if the extra overnight(s) and per diems were part of the calculations when deciding the "cheaper" offer :confused:

While I do not know Finnish Govt travel patterns, these routes seem secondary. HEL to major European cities are not included. My pure guess is that BT offered tickets equivalent to airport taxes. It's PR strategy to have such institutions among your clients.

But HEL-RIX-TLL must be the last resort for finnish civil servants. Except rare cold winters, there are comfortable fast ships from city center to another. Most likely there are also some kind of corporate agreements in place to get reasonable prices.

I wonder how many contracts does Hansel (the procurement agency for the Finnish government) actually make regarding travel and on what grounds.

I can understand destinations like BRU (EU traffic), NYC, GVA (UN traffic) and capital cities where there are bound to be a lot of various dignitaries and officials visiting, but how many officials do actually visit Stavanger each year? Five? Is it worth going through the tenders process and all the associated hassle for these more obscure destinations?

But HEL-RIX-TLL must be the last resort for finnish civil servants. Except rare cold winters, there are comfortable fast ships from city center to another. Most likely there are also some kind of corporate agreements in place to get reasonable prices.

HEL-TLL is served by AY/FC an OV with many direct flights el cheapo. How the civil servants' time is calculated here? 30-40 €/hrs is a very conservative estimation, so add an extra 3 hrs (again a conservative estimation) for HEL-RIX-TLL r/t and it's an additional 90-120€/pax For this difference only you can already buy direct r/t tix to TLL on published fares.

Of course this might be a way of nudging government employees to use trains (LED) or boats (TLL) i/o flying.

Add to this, that BT is launching its own FFP (and this implies leaving SK EB) even diehard FT'ers will likley chose the other options.

(ex-HEL -> add the costs of two taxi drives to Vantaa-Helsinki vs. to Central Station/West Harbour Of course it's another dpeartment dealing with land transport and another with water transport, I guess and the three never meet :td:)

I wonder how many contracts does Hansel (the procurement agency for the Finnish government) actually make regarding travel and on what grounds.

I can understand destinations like BRU (EU traffic), NYC, GVA (UN traffic) and capital cities where there are bound to be a lot of various dignitaries and officials visiting, but how many officials do actually visit Stavanger each year? Five? Is it worth going through the tenders process and all the associated hassle for these more obscure destinations?

Note - it's not only "dignitaries", but also "employees of Finnish governmental institutions, ministries, Parliament, the armed forces and police, President’s Office, state schools and universities, hospitals, children’s care facilities and many others." Quite a bunch, actually.

How the civil servants' time is calculated here?

Or is it calculated at all? Are the civil servants paid extra for the travel hours in the first place? In addition to the per diem, of course.

Fly coach, book well before hand, and use whatever company you wish. That is the truth using Area and Hansel. The days of cheap government fares with AY have gone - the change took place about one year ago. Also most of the government employers have tightened their travel rules and also enforce them.

I think, it is just quite right to make government/municipal employees to think also the cost of their travel habits. For most of the civil servants, it is just perfectly possible to know, when to be where, and therefore book restricted tickets.

Or is it calculated at all? Are the civil servants paid extra for the travel hours in the first place? In addition to the per diem, of course.

I don't think they get any extra, but they get their normal salary, so their working time spent on travelling should figure somewhere among the cost calculations. At least if I employ someone, I do care if he spends his hours flying/sitting around on unnecessary connecting flights when the same could be achieve in 30 mins (e.g HEL-TLL i/o HEL-RIX-TLL)

From what I understood from the AirBaltic page, e.g. HEL-RIX-CDG is one of the routes they offer. Not very competitive thinking the frequency of AY to the same destination (5 times a day and very reasonable coach prices even with domestic connections...). Moreover, if AY prices are not attractive, AF offers even better deals, since all of the flights are code shared also to/from major Finnish domestic destinations.

I don't think they get any extra, but they get their normal salary, so their working time spent on travelling should figure somewhere among the cost calculations. At least if I employ someone, I do care if he spends his hours flying/sitting around on unnecessary connecting flights when the same could be achieve in 30 mins (e.g HEL-TLL i/o HEL-RIX-TLL)

Maybe this implies traveling on their own time, i.e. outside the regular working hours in order not to loose any working time. There are both very early and very late flights between HEL and RIX to maximize time at destination (assuming that the connections work, of course).

This is the way it's always been with me - minimize traveling on company time and maximize it on your own (for no extra compensation apart from the per diem and miles of course).

Maybe this implies traveling on their own time, i.e. outside the regular working hours in order not to loose any working time. There are both very early and very late flights between HEL and RIX to maximize time at destination (assuming that the connections work, of course).

This is the way it's always been with me - minimize traveling on company time and maximize it on your own (for no extra compensation apart from the per diem and miles of course).

Typical problem of Finnish salespeople, etc - no compensation for travelling on your own time. In some co's there a verbal agreement, that you can take some time off to compensate.