Finnair renews European and domestic fleet

Finnair has ordered four more Embraer aircraft. The new aircraft are 100-seat Embraer 190 jets, which will be introduced on the airline's European and domestic routes. The order, worth approximately 100 million euro, is a continuation to the 12 aircraft Embraer acquisition programme begun this autumn.

By autumn 2007, Finnair will have a total of 16 Embraer aircraft in its fleet. In addition to these, Finnair has four further Embraer options. Of the ordered aircraft, ten are 76- seat Embraer 170s and six are of the larger 190 model. The first three Embraer 170s joined the Finnair fleet this autumn.

"The new aircraft will be used on European and domestic routes where demand does not require the use of our Airbus fleet. This way we can offer connections to new destinations for passengers on our Asian flights. At the same time the number of direct routes and frequencies from Finland to the rest of Europe increases. The five different sized aircraft of our two aircraft families bring flexibility in capacity management and thus improve load factors," said Finnair COO and EVP Scheduled Passenger Traffic Henrik Arle.

The Embraers will replace Finnair's remaining Boeing MD-80 aircraft by summer 2006.

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