Finnair: Is this alliance benefits ?

[md80forum]

Only one month after joining the Oneworld alliance, Finnair announces they will shut down its operations to Osaka, Toronto and San Francisco and cut frequencies to New York -- unique in Northern Europe.

A press release then bluntly encourages Finnair customers to make use of their new Oneworld partners.

It's hard not to see Big Brother British Airways' own problems on the intercontinental scene in this. It's also easy to see how American prefers picking up incoming travellers to the States at JFK instead of doing it in SFO. Or BA doing it already at LHR/LGW.

In a real alliance one would see the favourable position of Helsinki (or Stockholm) as the prospect for building a real Oneworld European hub for flights to the Far East in northern Europe. The selection of regions in Western Europe, which don't have a nonstop-Far East potential on their own would be excellent. Any Great Circle computing would support this. So would the extremely non-congested air space, and the efficient and fast transfers in both Helsinki and Stockholm.

Now I'm afraid British Airways rather treats Finnair as a competitor than a partner.

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The bright side is of course the repositioning of aircraft to Finnair's existing PEK and BKK-SIN which will have increased frequencies. But one also would like to see some alliance commitment to that.

Or some commitment to linking Stockholm or Helsinki to Oneworld partner CX's network in Hongkong.

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Jan-Erik Andelin
MD80 INTERNATIONAL FORUM
http://surf.to/md80

[polar bear]

Amen to that...

the freed MD-11 capacity will, if I understood it right, be used for leisure flights...but, perhaps they change it again next year!

about being on the great circle route (HEL or ARN). quite right, it is amazing that people do not see the benefits of fairly uncongested airspace and shorter travel times. On the other hand, I wonder how keen e.g. BA is to re-route their passengers via HEL, no matter how much of alliance brothers and sisters the companies are...

polar bear

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Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.

-Ernest Hemmingway

[JJflyer]

Looks like the new CEO had to make a statement and show that he is in control.
Like the previous CEO he is a political nominee without any significant aviation background.
Another of his great decicions was to reduce the number of cabin crew on longhaul flights,
specially on the North Atlantic market.
Finnair has a reputation for good inflight service around the world.
I , for some reason fail to see how reducing cabin staff and reducing breakfast to a glass of orange juice on an 8h flight will achieve this goal.
But then I am only sort o' pilot

JJ

[polar bear]

I think they are moving back to "real" breakfasts again, the miser-meals were only in use during the summer (i.e. lots of low-payer pax). I'm however not 100% sure...

polar bear

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Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.

-Ernest Hemmingway

[md80forum]

A senior in Finnair's management I talked to recently, told me there has even been discussions about whether Finnair should keep the MD11 and intercontinental ops at all, after joining Oneworld.

With only four MD11 on the fleet, maintenance costs go high, even though Finnair also does maintenance for other airlines in Helsinki, such as LH/MD11F.

If one would be to predict something, the future seems to be British Airways franchising some B777 tails up here north
for a new network of decent-frequency intercontinental flights, emanating from Stockholm rather than from Helsinki.

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Jan-Erik Andelin
MD80 INTERNATIONAL FORUM
http://surf.to/md80

[polar bear]

Well, it's been debated whether it is of any use for Finnair to operate long-haul with wide bodies as their OneWorld buddies could do that instead.

I don't for a minute think that they would get rid of their wide bodies (they might change to another type perhaps, in the future)and leave all the long-haul routes to e.g. BA. If you take a look at the history, this is one of the things which has crashed possible alliances or mergers with airlines (SAS, SAS again, LH...).

It seems to be of national pride to have operations as a "real" company, i.e. be able to fly both near and far, with own equipment, not being a lackey for a bigger master. In theory it might be the wisest (in some cases and on some routes) decision to let someone else operate certain routes, but giving up all wide body traffic.... no way, there's to much pride, tradition and "sisu" involved. Mr. CEO might have to hide somewhere from the Finns if he would "sell out" the national flying cross, well that might be slightly exaggerated...

polar bear :)

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Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.

-Ernest Hemmingway

[JJflyer]

Hahahah...Good point Polar Bear.
I agree with you in that they are most likely to keep their existing MD11 fleet and in the future replace them with, say 777's.
One issue I would quickly address is fleet and engine commonality.
Anyways. I would think that Finnair is going to be around for another 76 years ( hope)

JJ