Finland's Largest Airline, Finnair, Expands Fleet

Helsinki, Finland based Finnair has recently announced the purchase of an additional airliner, adding to their total on order with aircraft manufacture Airbus Industries. The purchase is for a single Airbus A330-300 aircraft, and in addition to seven that were already on order with the company. Also, Finnair currently has purchase orders for four A340-300 aircraft and eleven A350XWB airliners.

Speaking at the press conference was President and CEO of Finnair, Jukka Hienonen. The CEO had the following to say, "We want to update our long-haul fleet as quickly as possible, so as to serve our customers better. We also want to benefit from the modern twin-engine technology offered by the Airbus products, which are both more fuel efficient and environmentally friendlier. This will allow us to operate one of the most modern and eco-efficient fleets in Europe".

Typical of Airbus press conferences, Chief Operating Officer of Customers, John Leahy, was present, and had a few words to say about the new purchase. We greatly value our partnership with Finnair, and are happy to strengthen it further while accompanying the airline in its fleet renewal and growth strategy. The A330 offers unrivalled fuel and environmental efficiency as well as passenger comfort, and also produces very low emissions and noise. The combination of A330s, A340s, and the A350s to come, together with Finnair's in service A320s, offers the airline a strong asset in the market."

About Finnair: Finnair is the largest airline serving Finland, and has been doing so since 1923, making it one of the oldest airlines in existence today. Today, the airline operates a fleet of sixty aircraft from a hub in Helsinki to sixty-five destinations across Europe, Asia and North America. Today, the airline can be seen operating many regional flights around Finland, especially during the summer months, and operates many tourist routes to popular European destinations. Finnair is one of the world's safest airlines, not having a single fatal accident since 1963, over forty years.

About the ordered aircraft: The Airbus A330-300 is the largest member of the A330 family, a twin engine, wide body, medium to long range airliner. The A330-300 carries up to 335 passengers in two class configuration, but can only carry 295 when the aircraft is equipped with First, Business and Economy class seating. By being able to fly routes of over 5,500 nautical miles, the A330-300 will allow Finnair to operate routes to North America, Europe, parts of Africa, South America and Asia. With a single fuel stop, the aircraft could fly to any city in the world from Helsinki, if Finnair would desire to fly to Australia.