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Finnair has decided to acquire a sixth MD-11 for its long-haul fleet. The
agreement on the lease of the MD-11 wide-body aircraft has been signed with
Boeing Capital Corporation. The aircraft is to join the Finnair fleet towards the end of spring 2004.
As of June 2004, the additional capacity brought by the aircraft will be
used to increase frequencies to Finnair's current Asian destinations. The
strong Asian emphasis of Finnair's long-haul strategy has proved to be the
correct choice as Asia is the fastest growing air transport market area.
"A fifth MD-11 was added to the Finnair fleet in the beginning of 2003 and
so the newcomer will add to the number of long-haul aircraft. Next summer we
will have 50 per cent more capacity in our long-haul traffic compared to
early 2003," says Finnair COO and EVP Scheduled Passenger Traffic Henrik
Arle.
Finnair currently operates over twenty weekly frequencies to Asian
destinations. From the start of the summer schedule in March, the number
of weekly flights to Beijing will increase from five to six. As of June 1st,
Beijing flights will become daily. Finnair's other destinations in Asia are
Bangkok, with daily frequencies, Hong Kong, Osaka, Tokyo, Shanghai and Singapore.
Demand on Finnair's Asian routes has grown by almost 40 per cent during
this past autumn compared with autumn 2002. The majority of passengers on the
Asian routes are from Asia. A quarter of Finnair passenger and cargo revenues come from Asia meaning that it is the second largest
source of income after European traffic and more significant than domestic traffic.
The growing Asian traffic is also increasing passenger numbers on
European routes. Demand in Finnair's scheduled traffic grew over 20 per cent in
November.
The MD-11 aircraft has over 280 passenger seats of which 42 are in
Business Class. |
