Finnish airline
Blue1
Oy
was a
Finnish
airline
owned by
CityJet
.
[1]
[2]
It was a subsidiary of the
SAS Group
and flew to around 28 destinations in Europe,
[3]
mainly from its base at
Helsinki Airport
. It carried over 1.7 million passengers in 2011.
[3]
The airline was a member of
Star Alliance
and had its head office in
Vantaa
.
[4]
[5]
[6]
History
[
edit
]
Air Botnia
Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante
at Helsinki Vantaa in 1994
Blue1 head office in
Vantaa
Early years
[
edit
]
The airline was established in 1987 and started operations in 1988 as
Air Botnia
, flying
Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirantes
on night cargo flights and on passenger services from
Helsinki
to
Kauhajoki
and
Seinajoki
.
[7]
It started to supplement its unpressurised Bandeirantes with leased
British Aerospace Jetstream 31s
in 1993, but cash flow problems in the summer of 1995 caused British Aerospace to repossess the Jetstreams and brought Air Botnia to the point of bankruptcy, but it continued operations in a reduced scale.
[8]
The airline was purchased by SAS Group in January 1998, who replaced its Jetstreams with
Saab 340s
later that year. Air Botnia received its first jets,
Fokker F28 Fellowships
, in 1999. The elderly F28s were soon replaced as their high noise levels restricted operations, with
Avro RJ85s
being received in 2001. The Saab 340s were replaced by larger
Saab 2000s
at the same time.
[9]
Development since 2004
[
edit
]
Air Botnia was renamed Blue1 in January 2004,
[10]
and joined
Star Alliance
as its first regional member on 3 November 2004. Blue1 became a full member of
Star Alliance
on 1 January 2009. Blue1 left Star Alliance in November 2012 and became an affiliate of
Scandinavian Airlines
.
In 2005 Blue1 became the second-largest Finnish airline with more than 100 daily flights and the biggest operator between Finland and the Nordic nations Sweden, Denmark and Norway. In 2006 Blue1 started 10 new non-stop routes to Europe increasing its total capacity by more than 50%. In 2008 Blue1 moved its London operations from Stansted to
Heathrow Airport
, and expanded its domestic business routes. In 2009 new routes to
Lapland
, including Paris-Kittila were opened for the winter season and routes to Biarritz, Dubrovnik and Split for summer travel.
Blue1 was the first network airline in Northern Europe to be granted ISO 14001 environmental certificate.
[11]
On 1 November 2012, Blue1 became a service producer for SAS. This means that marketing and sales were then handled by SAS and its flights carried the SAS flight prefix "SK".
In March 2015, it was announced that Blue1 was to sell their entire fleet of
Boeing 717-200s
to
Volotea
and
Delta Air Lines
and was to replace them with
Boeing 737-600s
from its parent,
Scandinavian Airlines
,
[12]
however Scandinavian Airlines later cancelled the plan and considered to transfer some
Bombardier CRJ900
from
Cimber
.
[13]
In October 2015,
Scandinavian Airlines
(SAS) announced the sale of Blue1 to
CityJet
, which was to operate the company on behalf of SAS as part of a larger relationship.
[14]
In December 2015, Blue1 did not operate any aircraft and its own website has been redirected to
SAS
's website.
[15]
In 2016, Blue1 was dissolved and merged into its new parent CityJet.
[2]
Fleet
[
edit
]
A former Blue1
Boeing 717-200
A former Blue1
Avro RJ85
A former Blue1
McDonnell Douglas MD-90
Last fleet
[
edit
]
As of December 2015 - before its actual dissolution - Blue1 did not operate any aircraft as the
Boeing 717-200s
previously operated had been phased out without replacement.
Retired fleet
[
edit
]
Previously Blue1 also operated the following aircraft types:
Onboard services
[
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]
Blue1 offered two service classes, Economy and Economy Extra (previously Blue1 Premium).
[18]
- Economy Class: Coffee and tea were included on all Blue1 operated flights. Sandwiches and other drinks were available for purchase from "Cafe1".
[19]
Flights with short flight time had reduced service.
- Economy Extra: Fast Track security and Business Class check-in was included where available.
References
[
edit
]
Citations
[
edit
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Pagiola, Stefano. (October 2004) "Stars in Their Eyes: Finland's Blue 1 Regional Airline".
Air International
, Vol 67 No 4. pp. 42?45.
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Blue1
at Wikimedia Commons
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