Finnair to reduce fleet as part of new strategy

On 7 September 2022, Finnair announced the outlines of its new strategy, which has the aim for the airline to return to pre-pandemic profitability. The airline has been impacted, not only by the pandemic but also by not being able to overfly Russia anymore. Especially this last thing created issues for them as Finnair has been focusing for the last years to offer connections between Europe and Asia.

The new strategy will see Finnair bringing its network into a better geographical balance, working closer with Oneworld-partners and reduce costs. As a result of these plans, the airline is set to reduce the fleet, although it hasn't communicated yet which aircraft are leaving. Finnair did say, however, that the Airbus A330 and A350 will still be a crucial part of the future.

Oneworld-member Qatar Airways will be one of the most important partners for Finnair as both companies signed an extensive partnership agreement, which will see Finnair launching direct flights to Qatar from the Nordic capitals Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm, positioning itself strongly in the territory of SAS. The flights are set to begin at the end of this year and will be flown by A330-300s.

Over the last few months, Finnair also diversified its operations by offering ACMI-flights (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance) for other Oneworld-partners, putting their fleet to good use for, e.g., British Airways. If these are continuing didn't became clear when the airline outlined its new strategy.

Today, Finnair's fleet consists of 80 aircraft; twelve ATR72-500s (operated by NORRA), six Airbus A319s, ten A320s, fifteen A321s, eight A330-300s, seventeen A350-900s and twelve Embraer ERJ190s (operated by NORRA).

Photo by Niek Jumelet via our Aviation Photo Forum.