Blue1
| Blue1 | |
|---|---|
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| IATA code : | Theatrical Version |
| ICAO code : | BLF |
| Call sign : | BLUEFIN |
| Founding: | 1987 (as Air Botnia) |
| Operation stopped: | 2016 |
| Merged with: | CityJet |
| Seat: |
Vantaa , Finland
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| Turnstile : | |
| Home airport : | Helsinki-Vantaa |
| Company form: | Oy |
| IATA prefix code : | 142 |
| Management: |
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| Number of employees: | 200 |
| Frequent Flyer Program : | SAS EuroBonus |
| Fleet size: | 8 orders |
| Aims: | National and international |
| Website: | www.blue1charter.fi |
| Blue1 merged with CityJet in 2016 . The information in italics relates to the last status before the takeover. | |
Blue1 (until 2004 Air Botnia ) was a Finnish regional airline based in Vantaa and based at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport . It merged with the parent company CityJet in 2016 .
history
Air Botnia
The regional airline, which previously operated under the name Air Botnia , was founded in 1987 by father and son Pakari, who later founded Finncomm Airlines . On behalf of Finnair, she flew regional routes with low demand, especially in northern Lapland and the Gulf of Bothnia . Two Embraer EMB 110s as well as a Swearingen Merlin and a Cessna 402 were used for this. In 1995 the first flights from the capital of Lapland, Rovaniemi , were twice a week to Murmansk in northern Russia . One of four newly acquired BAe Jetstream 31s was used for this purpose. In doing so, however, they had taken over and in the early summer of 1995, flight operations were suspended. The company was reorganized and bought by SAS Scandinavian Airlines in January 1998 .
Blue1
Since the beginning of 2004 the company operated under the name Blue1 . Since then, it has operated feeder flights to the SAS hubs in Stockholm and Copenhagen , as well as point-to-point connections from Helsinki and other Finnish cities to Western and Eastern Europe. The fleet was renewed at that time by Saab 340 and Fokker F28-4000 from SAS. Due to new noise protection regulations, the Fokker had to be replaced from 2001 by BAe 146-200 and Avro RJ100 .
On October 31, 2004, Blue1 became a regional member of the Star Alliance aviation alliance , but left in December 2012.
In the medium term, it was planned to largely convert the fleet to Boeing 717-200 . In the summer of 2011, a total of nine 717s flew at Blue1, these were taken over by Spanair and Quantum Air . In addition, a new color scheme called "Flowing" was introduced with these aircraft, which was varied individually for each aircraft. It was developed by Helsinki's Aalto University .
In June 2011 it was announced that Blue1 would retire the remaining BAe 146 in deficit earlier than planned and that some employees would be laid off. Furthermore, the route network was mainly concentrated on Scandinavian destinations, some destinations such as London , Paris , Berlin and Munich were subsequently discontinued.
In November 2012, Blue1 was tied more closely to the parent company SAS Scandinavian Airlines , which took over the marketing of Blue1 flights under the name SAS Suomi . The independent Internet presence of Blue1 was now only used to sell the charter activities , but the brand name was retained. The hub of Blue1 has been Copenhagen-Kastrup Airport since March 26, 2012 , but most flight movements continued to be carried out from Helsinki-Vantaa .
In May 2014, Blue1 announced that it would replace its entire fleet consisting of Boeing 717 with another type in the medium term. A few weeks later it was announced that Blue1 would soon flee four of its nine Boeing 717s without replacement. As a result of this measure, 160 of 320 jobs were cut and some routes were discontinued.
In March 2015, Blue1 announced that it would sell its entire Boeing 717 fleet and replace it with Boeing 737-600 from Scandinavian Airlines. However, this plan was changed a few months later: the 717 were to be retired as planned, but not replaced by the 737-600.
In October 2015, the SAS Group announced the sale of Blue1 to the Irish CityJet , which the company would continue to operate on behalf of Scandinavian Airlines for at least the next three years. The remaining five Boeing 717s were to be replaced by eight Bombardier CRJ900s including six options. Nevertheless, Blue1 merged with CityJet in 2016 and ceased operations.
Destinations
Blue1 operated flights in the route network of SAS Scandinavian Airlines and had a hub at Copenhagen-Kastrup Airport, from which it served destinations in Northern Europe .
Historic fleet
In the past, Blue1 used the following types of aircraft:
See also
Web links
- Website of the Blue 1 (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ blue1charter.fi - News ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed on May 9, 2015
- ↑ blue1charter.fi - About us ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) accessed on May 9, 2015
- ↑ a b ch-aviation - Blue1 (English), accessed on April 20, 2017
- ↑ blue1.com - Blue1 kaksinkertaistaa lentolaivueensa Boeing 717-matkustajakoneilla, May 26, 2010 (Finnish)
- ↑ blue1.com - First Boeing 717 for Blue1, August 3, 2010 (English)
- ↑ news.airwise.com - SAS's Loss-Making Unit Blue1 Cuts Routes, June 17, 2011 (English)
- ↑ ch-aviation - Finland's Blue 1 coy on B717 replacement plans (English), accessed on May 3, 2014
- ↑ taloussanomat.fi - Blue1 vähentää rajusti: Jopa puolet väestä ulos (Finnish), accessed on June 19, 2014
- ↑ aerotelegraph.com - Blue 1 dismisses half of its staff, June 23, 2014
- ↑ ch-aviation - Finland's Blue to offload B717 fleet to Volotea, Delta , accessed on March 5, 2015
- ↑ ch-aviation - Blue 1's future hangs in balance as SAS revises fleet plans (English), accessed on July 30, 2015
- ↑ aero.de - SAS awards regional operations to CityJet, October 1, 2015
- ↑ aerotelegraph.com - City Jet takes over Finnish Blue 1, accessed on October 2, 2015
- ↑ airfleets.net - Blue1 (English), accessed on November 12, 2015
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