Blue1 Drops Avros and Drops Routes

Posted 29/06/2011

Finnish regional carrier Blue1 is to retire its remaining Avro RJ85s from commercial service, according to its parent company SAS Scandinavian Airlines.  The regional carrier will now streamline its fleet around its recently introduced Boeing 717 fleet to boost its position in the Finnish market and improve the profitability of the company.  The Avros will be retired from August at which time Blue1 will make some amendments to its network as it will focus more strongly on the domestic Finnish market. 

"We strongly believe this is an important step for Blue 1 in order to strengthen its position in the Nordic market.  The streamlining of the fleet is in line with the SAS Group's ambition to simplify and harmonise the fleet at our home bases,” said John Dueholm, Deputy President & Chief Executive Officer, SAS Group.  “This is also consistent with our Core SAS strategy to focus on the Nordic region as our home market."

The refocus on the Finnish market and the opening of a new Tampere – Copenhagen link will result in the closure of a number of international routes.  From the start of August flights from Helsinki to Berlin Tegel, Munich and Tallinn will be suspended, while connections to Amsterdam and Paris CDG will end from September 3.  These destinations were served once or twice daily. 

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