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Air Baltic to buy Finncomm airlines?

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Old Jul 16, 2010, 10:59 am
  #1  
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Air Baltic to buy Finncomm airlines?

According to Finnish TV, it seems that air Baltic wants to buy Finncomm, the ailing Finnair feeder airline. Finnair seems to have been caught with their pants down and they are apparently in a hurry to place a counterbid.
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Old Jul 16, 2010, 11:38 am
  #2  
 
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Shame if FC changes as I've found them actually more helpful and better than AY (at least comparing Y intra-EU) as much as you can compare like for like.
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Old Jul 16, 2010, 6:09 pm
  #3  
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Originally Posted by tsastor
According to Finnish TV, it seems that air Baltic wants to buy Finncomm, the ailing Finnair feeder airline. Finnair seems to have been caught with their pants down and they are apparently in a hurry to place a counterbid.
This would be a logic step for BT! They already serve quite a few Finnish domestic routes (like TKU-OUL).
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Old Jul 17, 2010, 1:02 am
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Originally Posted by TPJ
This would be a logic step for BT! They already serve quite a few Finnish domestic routes (like TKU-OUL).
I disagree. Until now FC has feeded the AY int'l network and it wouldn't be within the interests of BT that this would continue.

Yet without that feeder traffic most of FC planes would be half-empty.
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Old Jul 17, 2010, 1:38 am
  #5  
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A very healthy reminder about good business practices for AY. Neglecting the domestic Finnish passengers - as it has been already for years - can not be regarded an entirely healthy practice for a Finnish Airline. Maybe they should change the name from Finnair to Helair or something alike. Good going BT! Next purchase KF? Slightly OT, but when was the new BT terminal in RIX due opening?
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Old Jul 17, 2010, 8:42 am
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Can BT actually afford to do this at the moment?
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Old Jul 17, 2010, 12:17 pm
  #7  
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Originally Posted by TTL
A very healthy reminder about good business practices for AY. Neglecting the domestic Finnish passengers - as it has been already for years - can not be regarded an entirely healthy practice for a Finnish Airline. Maybe they should change the name from Finnair to Helair or something alike. Good going BT!
Agree. BT probably has a much better cost structure to carry out various domestic and intra-European flights and they seem to be able to optimize their whole network instead of just individual routes.
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Old Jul 19, 2010, 9:41 am
  #8  
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AY has managed to obtain a court order which prevents the FC shareholders from selling to anyone else but Finnair or other FC shareholders.

No outsider actually knows what kind of deal AY and FC have, so it is difficult to speculate any further. The CEO of FC has given contradictory statements.

All in all, FC has made its mediocre success under the wings of AY, thus the reaction of AY is easily understandable.

Further bad news for AY from KF tell that the best selling domestic routes e.g. OUL-HEL and KUO-HEL will get increased frequencies by KF in the coming months. KF acquires or leases ATR:s in addition to their future 717:s.

Last edited by TTL; Jul 19, 2010 at 11:49 am
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Old Jul 19, 2010, 3:28 pm
  #9  
 
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I know that Aero Airlines were not a success story. However, I think that the loads have come down on the Helsinki-Turku route. Does anyone else remember the announcements (something like this): Welcome on board on this Aero Airlines flight to Turku. It is a joint service with Finnair. We also co-operate with Air France, British Airways and Swiss International Airlines.
The code-shares were dropped when FinnComm started the operation. Aero was considered to be an AY company but starting with a new private company pushed AF, BA and LX away (LX would have stopped anyway). Even a couple of extra passengers could make a difference in the earnings.
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Old Jul 19, 2010, 10:55 pm
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Turku loads have been affected by the new road between HEL and TKU. The loads are so thin that even the odd Wizzair flights must have had some effect on the el-cheapo travellers who would have bought Finnair tix at Crazy days, when connecting flights to HEL can be had for some tenners more.
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Old Jul 20, 2010, 2:06 am
  #11  
 
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Originally Posted by nordic
I know that Aero Airlines were not a success story.
Idea to create Aero was the right one - small cost effective single aircraft type feeder based in inexpensive country. However the reality turned out to be different, mainly due to unions. So when Aero finally took off, it was far away from its original design. Instead, it was a Finnair-mini ruled by the same unions. Failure was imminent.
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Old Jul 21, 2010, 1:26 am
  #12  
 
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And today in the news: Finnair made an offer to buy FinnCom already in June. Offer wasn´t good enough for the owners. This is getting intresting.
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Old Jul 21, 2010, 2:15 am
  #13  
 
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And when the FC owners were not happy what AY had to offer the AirBaltic card was hit the table... It seems the owners want to get rid of FC and with the best possible price, of course. Really curious for the next move!
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Old Jul 31, 2010, 1:02 am
  #14  
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FC will begin close co-operation with BT. FC flights to Pori, Jyväskylä and Seinäjoki will be terminated. Instead, e.g., 6 to 8 times daily to Oulu and Rovaniemi. This co-operation will lead in time to a merger.

AY replies that FC is an independent airline and they may fly where they desire.

This was the news in Helsingin sanomat this morning.
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Old Aug 4, 2010, 8:42 am
  #15  
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Flybe will begin operating HEL-TLL, HEL-TKU ja HEL-TMP routes for Finnair. 3 aircraft - most likely those that land only with 2 landing gears out of 3 outside - will be based at HEL.

Finnair has also announced they consider increased frequencies within Finland shortly. Finally, some sense in their decisions - not just peeing into the eyes of the domestic Finnish passengers! Interesting to see, if the increasing competition will affect the soaring domestic ticket prices.
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