Finnair has placed a firm order for Embraer E195-E2s to be operated by its regional partner Nordic Regional Airlines (Norra) and is seeking up to 12 used Airbus A320/321ceos to replace its oldest A319s and A320s along with six ATRs and four E1s for interim regional capacity.
Alongside an initial firm order for 18 E2s Finnair has taken 16 options and 12 purchase rights plus spare Pratt & Whitney PW1900G geared turbofan (GTF) engines. It has also signed a maintenance services agreement with Pratt.
Finnair CEO Turkka Kuusisto shared “This mix of new and used aircraft supports our growth and profitability targets.”
Kuusisto shared “This is one of the largest investments in Finnair’s 102-year-old history and a vital step in our strategy. The Embraer E2 will enable us to strengthen our European network and tap into the growth opportunities.”
Kuusisto shared “As Russian airspace is closed regional operations are getting more important.”
The E2s will be used to broaden Finnair’s regional network strengthen point-to-point connectivity and feed Asian and North American long-haul operations.
Finnair chief revenue officer Christine Rovelli shared “The gauges and the numbers of aircraft that we need are different so it is not as simple as doing a one-for-one replacement. What we have looked to do is reorient the network in terms of our home Nordic market that we are serving which by definition has smaller destinations that are better suited to a smaller gauge of aircraft.”
Rovelli shared “The A220 has a longer range it carries more people. But the question was that something that was best suited to our network or not? And at the end of the day looking at those two aircraft together we really felt like the E2 is the best decision. We had a lot of discussions with Pratt & Whitney as you might imagine throughout this process to get comfortable with where the build of the engine is currently and where they expect it to be by the time we take delivery. They have been pretty public about the fact that the GTF Advantage and the HS Plus [Hot Section Plus] will be installed on the engine at the latest the [third quarter of]2027 we felt comfortable moving forward with deliveries at that time.”
