nordic

There was a post on flightforum.fi stating that Finncomm is considering getting rid of their Embraers (E-145). How are the flights to STR performing. Would an AY E175 be too large?

mosburger

Germany is the key market in Europe for Finnair. The current network there is too weak already, even Emirates has an equally strong presence with medium haul planes.

If Finnair wants to fill the Asia bound widebodies with British and Spanish pax only, then good luck considering the deep economic dive in both countries. And Denmark, Norway and Sweden simply do not give the same volume.

What I would do would be to switch Finncom to the Berlin flights. Weak market with mostly leisure pax point to point or to Asia. Flight time is also less than two hours so smaller planes can be utilized.

Stuttgart and the surrounding regions in Germany, France and Switzerland are heavy on SMEs and corporates alike with strong global exports. Better have decent Airbuses there than for the low cost oriented Berlin market.

FlyingPrince22

The TXL leg has although LH and AirBerlin... so I think that AY should definitely keep the better planes on that route.

FlyingFinn

There are no LH services BER-HEL, and I don't think there ever were - not at least for the recent 7+ years. When KF used to fly TXL-HEL the flight was codeshared with LH, though.

AB with an inconveniently timed single daily flight is not that good for business pax, although if routing via DUS the flight times are much better.

mosburger

I think the Embraers would suite the TXL - HEL connection perfectly, flying time is only 1h45min as compared to the almost 3h to Stuttgart. My recent experiences from this route are of a 50-70&% load on the Airbuses.

I would really consider experimenting with FC to Berlin and maybe also to Warsaw and other Polish destinations plus the whole of the Baltic States.

These are routes where the flying time is not that different from several Finnish domestic destinations so quick turnarounds are possible. I guess Finnish domestic travel is down so this capacity could be used for attacking Lufthansa in their backyard for el cheapo Asian and NYC connections.

FlyingFinn

Mr Hienonen posted a quite an interesting piece regarding the current contract negotiations with the pilot's union in the AY Blog (sorry, doesn't seem to be available in English) here: http://blogit.finnair.fi/2009/01/29/pilotit/

Anyway one thing that struck me was that AY has 3 ERJ-170s that are underutilized in the current schedules and likely to stay so. Apparently AY has considered leasing these to FC for their operations (replacing the -145's, I guess), but the current AY contract with the pilots union requires their *approval for this deal*, even if it was a dry (i.e. equipment only, staffed by FC staff) lease. And obviously the union isn't very happy about it, as the average FC pilot salary is little over a third of the AY salary (disclaimer: this is from the blog post - haven't checked the facts, probably it means both pilots and first officers).

If this clause is ever withdrawn (and I sure hope so), I wouldn't be surprised to see STR be upgraded to 170s. Some other routes mentioned above are very likely candidates as well.

mosburger

If Stuttgart were taken seriously enough, it would be flown to with Airbuses and a decent check-in and lounge experience there ensured.

I´m not surprised that many German managers will stick with LH and other carriers instead of flying AY to Asia considering what rubbish infrastructure and planes Finnair is offering there.

This might be because the whole management seems only focused and knowledgeable on/about the British and Scandinavian markets in Europe. I hope this recession teaches them a lesson.

nordic

I can't find any availability next winter season. Is this destination the latest victim of the recession?

As a side note I can't even find domestic French connections (op by AF) next winter (BOD, MRS, LYS, NCE). On the contrary conncetions via Brussels by Brussels Airlines seem to continue. One would have assumed that the link with AF would icrease and the link with SN would stop.

nordic

Finally after 4 months they announce the inevitable.

www.finnair.com
"21.8.2009
Flights between Helsinki and Stuttgart will end in October
Flights operated by Finnair’s partner Finncomm Airlines between Helsinki and Stuttgart will be terminated at the end of the summer period. The last flight departs on October 23, 2009.
The route has been operated with Finnair’s flight numbers AY3901/02 and AY3907/08 twice daily."

mosburger

Another sign of extremely poor management of the German market during Mr.Hienonen's tenure.

Now, I know that he and his team did not include Germany in the key markets along with the Scandinavian countries and Britain but this is more or less sad.

Of course it plays a role that Mr.Hienonen and his team probably don't know a single word of German and have rarely visited there but how can an airline aiming at connecting to combine Asia and Europe leave out the biggest market in the latter?

Not that Finnair would ever want to know but I would personally know tens if not hundreds of companies in this area that are doing an active trade in Asia. Air France, British Airways and Lufthansa will all be delighted by this withdrawal...