Finnair was founded in 1923, making it one of the world’s oldest airlines. It is also Finland’s flag carrier airline and has its hub at the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. It is a member of the Oneworld Alliance. An ownership of 55.8% gives the Finnish government a controlling power of the airline. One of the airline’s key aims has been the development of the Europe-Asia traffic. The unique position of Finland’s geography which endows it with the shortest routes from Europe to the countries in the Far East makes it easier for it to achieve this aim.
Finnair’s operations revolve around some key areas including passenger and leisure traffic. Its leisure operations cover over 60 destinations and include exotic destinations like the Canary Islands, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and South East Asia. Domestically, Finnair covers 12 destinations.
Finnair’s fleet is more than 60 aircraft strong. It comprises of Airbus and Boeing planes but with a plan to retire some of the Boeing aircraft in its fleet by March 2010. The fleet however can boast of having some of the youngest planes in Europe today with Airbus and Embraer aircrafts. The long-term plan for the fleet is however, to have the wide-bodied Airbus service destinations on the long haul while the leisure destinations are serviced by the Boeing 757s.
Finnair recorded in January 1961, one of the worst accident cases in aviation history when one of its aircrafts was flown by pilots who were inebriated and sleep deprived resulting in a crash in Kvelax and the loss of all 25 lives aboard.
