ATR 25 years in Finland

Finnair made their first ATR 42 revenue flight on 19 March 1986. The aircraft type is not any longer used by Finnair, but Finncomm Airlines operates currently a fleet of 12 ATR -500 Series aircraft, and is increasing the number to 16 aircraft by the end of year 2011.

Finnair purchased in December 1979 two turboprop Fokker F.27 Friendship aircraft from Icelandair to replace their remaining piston-engined Convair CV440 Metropolitans. A third Fokker F.27 Friendship was purchased from Icelandair in January 1982.

The use of Fokker F.27 Friendships was a temporary solution to Finnair, since the type was already 25 years old. There were several new designs in the 50-seat category either in the market or under development. One of them was ATR 42, proposed as a joint venture by Aérospatiale of France and Aeritalia of Italy. The designation ATR is derived from Avions de Transport Régional or Aerei da Trasporto Regionale. The number 42 comes from comes from the aircraft's standard seating, which varies from 40 to 52.

On 23 October 1981 Finnair took an option to purchase five ATR 42-200 aircraft. The options were converted into a firm order on 21 April 1982. By the time Finnair signed their order, ATR 42 had been ordered only by two commuter airlines, Command Airways and Simmons Airlines, in the United States. Thus Finnair was the first European customer for ATR as well as a launch customer of ATR 42.

ATR 42 made its maiden flight on 16 August 1984; French and Italian certification followed in September 1985 and its first revenue flight was in December 1985 with the French airline Air Littoral.

ATR 42-200 was the original ATR 42 prototype and only a few were built for testing purposes. ATR 42-300 was the standard production version and it was manufactured until 1996.

The first of the five aircraft ordered by Finnair, OH-LTA was handed over at the Aerospatiale factory in Toulouse, France on 13 March 1986. The aircraft made its first revenue flight on 19 March 1986. The last of the five aircraft, OH-LTE was delivered on 23 April 1987.

ATR 72 replaces ATR 42 in Finnair

Already before the introduction of ATR 42, Finnair signed on 23 January 1986 an agreement with the ATR consortium for the purchase of five 66-70-seat ATR 72 turboprop aircraft. A sixth aircraft was ordered later. ATR 42 was considered to be too small to replace jet aircraft on short routes, and it was decided to switch them to bigger ATR 72s.

ATR 72 was developed from the ATR 42 in order to increase the seating capacity from 48 to 78 by stretching the fuselage by 4.5 metres. It was announced in 1986, and made its maiden flight on 27 October 1988. Finnair was the launch customer of ATR 72.

ATR 72-101 was the initial production variant powered by two PW124B engines and certified in September 1989. ATR 72-201 was a higher maximum take-off weight variant of the -101, a PW124B powered variant certified also in September 1989.

ATR 72 was on display at Paris Air Show in Le Bourget in June 1989 in the livery of Karair that was a subsidiary of Finnair. In 1990 operations were streamlined within the Finnair Group by making Karair responsible for ATR traffic and the parent company Finnair for jet traffic.

Exactly one year after the maiden flight of ATR 72 on 27 October 1989 Karair became the first airline to take delivery of ATR 72. The sixth ATR 72, OH-KRF was delivered to Karair on 30 September 1992.

ATR 72s were used on domestic routes, as well as international routes from Helsinki to Stockholm and Tallinn, and seasonally also to Murmansk.

In ATR aircraft passengers are boarded normally using the rear door, which is rare for a passenger plan. The front door is used to load cargo. However Finnair ordered their ATR 72s with front passenger door so they could use the jet bridges at Helsinki-Vantaa airport.

Also a special role was planned for Karair’s ATR 72s. If needed, they could be used as medical evacuation aircraft. Finnish Civil Aviation Administration approved in June 1994 a medevac version with a maximum of ten stretchers. In addition there were ten seats for medical personnel and other passengers. Other medevac versions approved were 3/50 and 7/28. However, ATR 72s were never used for medevac flights.

The Finnair and Karair Boards of Directors approved on 28 August 1996 an agreement under which all Karair business operations were transferred to Finnair as of 2 September 1996. Karair became wholly owned by Finnair, and all their ATR 72s were gradually painted in Finnair’s livery starting from 1 April 1997.

At the end of 1998 Finnair acquired from TransAsia Airways three more ATR 72s increasing the size of their ATR 72 fleet to nine aircraft.

Aero Airlines is founded

Finnair was founded in 1923 as Aero O/Y. In 1953, the name Finnair was adopted as the airline's marketing name, and in 1968 it became the company's official name. The name Aero was re-established in 2001 when Aero Airlines was founded in Estonia. Aero Airlines was owned by Aero Holding (51%) and Finnair (49%), but the ownership was later transferred wholly to Finnair. The goal of Aero Airlines was to develop a cost-effective model for a regional traffic operator and at the same time increase Finnair Group's market share in the fast-developing and growing Baltic air transport sector.

Aero Airlines started flying between Helsinki and Tallinn on 31 March 2002 with a single ATR 72 from Finnair bearing distinctive Aero Airlines livery. A second ATR 72 was transferred to the fleet of Aero Airlines on 2 November 2003.

Aero Airlines and Finnair had then received permission from the Finnish and Estonian Aviation Authorities for ATR aircraft leasing arrangements so that Aero can use their aircraft also on domestic services within Finland. Aero Airlines operated 22 daily flights from Helsinki to Jyväskylä, Mariehamn, Kuopio and Vaasa. This arrangement was valid until 1 May 2004, when Estonia became a member of the European Union.

After Estonia's EU membership, Aero Airlines doubled the number of their flights within Finland as of June 2004. Aero Airlines operated approximately 40 Finnair flights per day on short routes in mostly southern Finland with four ATR 72 aircraft. The remaining five Finnair ATR 72s were transferred to Aero Airlines livery by the end of 2004. All aircraft were registered in Estonia in August 2005 with the exception of OH-KRC that was sold in October 2005. All aircraft operated by Aero Airlines were in the ownership of Finnair Aircraft Finance the entire time.

Aero Airlines flew their farewell flight on 6 January 2008. At the same time ended Finnair's propeller aircraft era, and all ATR 72s were sold to new owners. By that time Finnair's ATR 72s had logged the most flight time in the world for this aircraft type. In Group airline operations the aircraft had flown a total of some 285,000 hours with over 450,000 landings.

Routes operated by Aero Airlines were transferred to Finnair's cooperation partner Finncomm Airlines who operated their own ATR -500 Series aircraft since December 2005.

Finncomm Airlines order ATR aircraft

The latest generation ATR aircraft family is the ATR -500 Series. The 50-seater ATR 42-500 entered into service in 1995, followed by the stretched 70-seat version ATR 72-500 in 1997. The new ATR-600 Series will be introduced in 2011.

ATR 42-500 has new engines, new propellers, improved hot and high performance, increased weight capacity and an improved passenger cabin. ATR 42-500 was certificated in July 1995. ATR 72-212A is marketed as ATR 72-500 and was certified in January 1997. It has similar improvements than ATR 42-500.

Founded in 1993, Finncomm Airlines is headquartered in Seinäjoki, western Finland, with operational base in Helsinki, and is a partner company of Finnair. The two carriers have been co-operating since 1998, when Finncomm Airlines started to feed Finnair’s domestic operations with operational support of Golden Air’s Saab 340 aircraft. In 2003 Finncomm Airlines introduced one Embraer ERJ-145 jet aircraft in their fleet, and a second one was introduced in 2005. These aircraft were operated under codeshare with Finnair e.g. on domestic route from Helsinki to Kemi in northern Finland and on international routes from Helsinki e.g. to Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Oslo.

Finncomm Airlines signed in June 2005 a contract for eight firm new ATR 42-500 aircraft plus an option for eight ATR -500 Series aircraft. With this order Finncomm Airlines became a new ATR customer. The order was unveiled at the Paris Air Show on 13 June 2005. With the firm orders Finncomm Airlines were replacing the Golden Air’s fleet of Saab 340s. The options were planned to meet the expected traffic growth.

Finncomm Airlines took delivery of their first ATR 42-500 aircraft on 30 November 2005 in Toulouse. Equipped with the new “Elegance” cabin, the 48-seat ATR 42-500 was delivered with the newest technological innovations in the field of communications and navigation aid tools: Aircraft Communication Addressing & Reporting System (ACARS), Multi-Purpose Computer (MPC), Precision Area Navigation (P-RNAV) including its possible upgrading to the Required Navigation Performance (RNP-RNAV) that was foreseen to be mandated in 2010.

Finncomm Airlines started gradually replace Golden Air’s Saab 340s with new ATR aircraft on domestic routes to various destinations according to demand on capacity. ATR also increased passenger comfort compared to Saab 340 with lower interior noise, less vibration and larger seats. Saab 340s were fully replaced by ATRs by the end of year 2007.

In 2006 Finncomm Airlines converted four of the firm ATR 42-500s into ATR 72-500s, and also announced the exercise of three of the options into firm ATR 72-500s. The remaining five options for ATR -500 Series were converted into firm order of five ATR 72-500. With this deal Finncomm Airlines will become the largest operator of ATR -500 Series aircraft in Europe, with four ATR 42-500s and twelve ATR 72-500s.

Finncomm Airlines operates today with ATR aircraft in addition to 12 domestic destinations and several seasonal routes to northern Finland also to Tallinn, Estonia and Norrköping, Sweden, and starting in March 2011 to Gdansk, Poland.

Foreign operators in Finland

In recent years a few foreign operators have wet-leased ATR aircraft to Finnish airlines.

In 2008 Aer Arann wet-leased one ATR 72-500 to Finncomm Airlines due to shortage of captains and aircraft. EI-REL, REM and REN were based in Helsinki one at a time during winter and spring.

ATR 72-201 LY-ATR (later re-registered as OY-RUD) of Danish Air Transport was operating for Blue1 from Stockholm-Arlanda to e.g. Turku and Tampere during 2009. This aircraft is the former OH-KRD of Finnair.

ATR 42-300 SP-KTR or Jet Air was operating domestic flights for Wingo xprs mainly on route Turku-Tampere-Oulu from August 2009 until October 2010.

ATR 72-500 SE-MDH of Golden Air has been wet-leased to Blue1 and was based in Helsinki at the end of August 2010. A second ATR 72-500 SE-MDI was based in Helsinki at the end of October. The aircrafts are used on domestic and Nordic routes.

Links

ATR Home Page » http://www.atraircraft.com/
ATR in Wikipedia » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATR_(aircraft_manufacturer)
ATR 42 in Wikipedia » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATR_42
ATR 72 in Wikipedia » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATR_72
Aero Airlines in Wikipedia » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_Airlines
Finnair Group Home Page in English » http://www.finnairgroup.com/en/index.html
Finncomm Airlines Home Page in English » http://www.fc.fi/home.html
Finncomm Airlines in Wikipedia » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finncomm_Airlines

ATR aircraft registered in Finland

Registrations	Type	c/n	Operators	Delivery	Until
OH-LTA	ATR 42-300	006	Finnair	13 Mar 1986	1990
OH-LTB	ATR 42-300	022	Finnair	10 Jul 1986	1989
OH-LTC	ATR 42-300	033	Finnair	18 Dec 1986	1990
OH-LTD	ATR 42-300	039	Finnair	5 Mar 1987	1990
OH-LTE	ATR 42-300	044	Finnair, Karair	23 Apr 1987	1990
OH-KRA, ES-KRA	ATR 72-201	126	Karair, Finnair, Aero Airlines	23 Jan 1990	2006
OH-KRB, ES-KRB	ATR 72-201	140	Karair, Finnair, Aero Airlines	27 Oct 1989	2007
OH-KRC	ATR 72-201	145	Karair, Finnair, Aero Airlines	9 Nov 1989	2005
OH-KRD, ES-KRD	ATR 72-201	162	Karair, Finnair, Aero Airlines	11 Apr 1990	2007
OH-KRE, ES-KRE	ATR 72-201	174	Karair, Finnair, Aero Airlines	11 May 1990	2008
OH-KRF, ES-KRF	ATR 72-201	324	Karair, Finnair, Aero Airlines	30 Sep 1992	2007
OH-KRH, ES-KRH	ATR 72-201	212	Finnair, Aero Airlines	1 Dec 1998	2007
OH-KRK, ES-KRK	ATR 72-201	251	Finnair, Aero Airlines	1 Dec 1998	2008
OH-KRL, ES-KRL	ATR 72-201	332	Finnair, Aero Airlines	1 Jan 1999	2008
OH-ATA	ATR 42-500	641	Finncomm Airlines	30 Nov 2005	in service
OH-ATB	ATR 42-500	643	Finncomm Airlines	28 Feb 2006	in service
OH-ATC	ATR 42-500	651	Finncomm Airlines	6 Oct 2006	in service
OH-ATD	ATR 42-500	655	Finncomm Airlines	21 Dec 2006	in service
OH-ATE	ATR 72-212A	741	Finncomm Airlines	30 Jan 2007	in service
OH-ATF	ATR 72-212A	744	Finncomm Airlines	16 Mar 2007	in service
OH-ATG	ATR 72-212A	757	Finncomm Airlines	11 Oct 2007	in service
OH-ATH	ATR 72-212A	769	Finncomm Airlines	15 Nov 2007	in service
OH-ATI	ATR 72-212A	783	Finncomm Airlines	30 May 2008	in service
OH-ATJ	ATR 72-212A	792	Finncomm Airlines	23 Oct 2008	in service
OH-ATK	ATR 72-212A	848	Finncomm Airlines	9 Oct 2009	in service
OH-ATL	ATR 72-212A	851	Finncomm Airlines	16 Dec 2009	in service