A Sample Feature From Aviation News

North to Seinäjoki

Finncomm Airlines recently took delivery of the first of a batch of new ATR42 turboprops to modernise its fleet, prompting Eryl Crump to gather up his snowshoes to see what life is like for a small regional operator in the challenging environment of northern Finland.

Above: Underlining the resurgence in the turboprop market, Finncomm’s latest ATR42-500 is brand new and the first of eight. MD Juhani Pakari (below) is confident the aircraft will prove a good investment. (Photos, author).

FINNISH Commuter Airlines, which operates as Finncomm Airlines, began a new chapter in its development just before Christmas. Brand-new ATR42-500 OH-ATA started an eight-sector day on December 12 with an early morning departure from Helsinki to Lappeenranta. The aircraft, delivered non-stop from Toulouse on December 1, will be followed by seven others before the end of 2007. The delivery marks the start of the complete replacement of Saab 340A and Saab 2000 aircraft, all operated by Swedish airline Golden Air, that up to now operated the Finncomm Airlines turboprop operations to 11 Finnish towns and cities from Helsinki. Finncomm Airlines provides the Swedish airline with staff, flight planning and operation control.

The delivery and successful introduction into service delighted Finncomm's managing director Juhani Pakari. He told Aviation News: "We reached the milestone of 12 years of flying in September. Nowadays, this must be considered a good achievement because, in aviation, requirements have increased to a huge extent in recent years. Although Finncomm Airlines has a history of several years of flying, the company is still at the beginning of its path. Let the introduction of the most important investment in the history of our company, our first new ATR 42-500, be a sign of this."

Early days in Finland

Launched as an air taxi company in 1993 by Juhani and his father, Etelä-Pohjanmaan Lentokeskus operated flights from its base in Seinäjoki to points in Finland and to the surrounding Baltic countries after they sold their holding in Air Botnia. Equipped with a number of light aircraft the company was particularly popular with hunters and fishermen keen to get into remote airstrips in rural Finland. Until May last year the company operated two Mitsubishi Mu-2Ns (OH-STA and OH-WBA) on these flights.

However, by then the air taxi business was very much in the background as Pakari concentrated on establishing Finncomm Airlines as a major Finnish regional airline. Pakari said: ‘We sold our holding in Air Botnia in 1995, the airline we had founded in 1988 as an all-passenger airline operating domestic routes from its base at Helsinki Airport operating five BAe Jetstream aircraft. We were as surprised as anyone when Scandinavian Airlines bought the company in 1998 and introduced a new strategy and the Saab 340A aircraft.

‘Air Botnia, under ourselves, had operated services on feeder routes in co-operation with Finnair and with Air Botnia (now called Blue 1) operating services in competition with Finnair we were asked to consider setting up an airline operation to provide regional feeder services to Helsinki on their behalf."

Above: Vital in preventing accidents is the mandatory de-icing of aircraft immediately prior to departure, as seen here using a mobile spray rig.

Some of these routes, to Lappeenranta, Pori, Savonlinna and Seinäjoki, are operated solely by Finncomm Airlines, but flights to Joensuu, Jyväskylä, Kemi, Kokkola, Kuopio, Tampere and Vaasa are operated in association with Finnair who use Airbus A320s and MD-80s on the routes. Finncomm Airlines’ ‘predecessor’ Blue 1 operates in competition with the airline on flights to Kuopio, Tampere and Vaasa. Finncomm Airlines was therefore developed but the beaurocratic red tape involved in setting up an airline meant it was easier to form an agreement with an existing airline to launch services while the necessary European regulatory approvals were obtained.

‘Golden Air had the AOC (Airline Operating Certificate) and we signed an agreement with them to operate services on our behalf while we obtained the necessary documentation,’ Pakari added. Seven Saab 340As and a solitary Saab 2000 were operated by Golden Air on behalf of Finncomm in early December. Two of the Saab 340s are registered in Finland while the remainder retain Swedish marks (see table). The latter will be returned to Golden Air during the next 18 months as the ATR42s are delivered.

The first aircraft to be placed on the Finncomm AOC was the Embraer ERJ-145. Two of the 49-seat Brazilian-built regional jets have been delivered to the airline on lease from Swiss International Airlines. The first arrived in September 2003 and entered service on a twice-daily schedule between Helsinki and Stuttgart, the aircraft starting and finishing its daily cycle at Kemi, a busy seaport and winter sports destination just south of the Arctic Circle. The aircraft arrives at Kemi shortly after midnight and departs again at 06.00hr and despite its short stop-over the winter weather can be severe so the airline has built a heated hangar for the aircraft in which to spend the night.
A second aircraft joined the airline in April 2005, expanding the company’s activities. In addition to operating an additional midday rotation to Kemi from Helsinki the aircraft also operates weekday return flights to Dusseldorf and Oslo, the aircraft night stopping at the German airport. At weekends there is a reduced schedule, but on Saturdays between March 4 and May 6, 2006, Finncomm are introducing a weekly skiing flight from Helsinki to Enontekiö in the north-west of Finland close to the Swedish border.

Hailing the new aircraft

Finncomm Airlines’ new ATR42-500 was delivered on November 30 with a 48-seat layout in a new ‘Elegance’ cabin. It also has the latest communications and navigation aids including an Aircraft Communication Addressing & Reporting System (ACARS) and Multi-Purpose Computer (MPC) as well as a double Flight Management System (FMS) that complies with current European requirements for Area Navigation (R-NAV) which could be upgraded to the Required Navigation Performance (RNP-RNAV) foreseen to be mandated in 2010.

According to Pakari, ‘The new-generation ATR42-500 is one of the most environmentally friendly products in aviation, thanks not only to its low fuel consumption but also to its extremely low environmental noise. When travelling on the new ATR, emissions per passenger kilometre remain considerably lower than when travelling by private car, being of the same level as those of an electric train! Also strong noise in the passenger cabin and vibrations caused by the propellers are now history, thanks to the product development of ATR.’

He added the airline considered several other regional airliners but the ATR was always a front-runner because of the experience built up by Finnair and Aero in operating the type. ‘ATR is a key player on the regional air transport market’ added Pakari, ‘and we consider that the ATR42-500s are particularly well adapted to our network. Indeed, these aircraft are the best combination of fuel-efficient technology and high level of comfort. We selected the ATR-500 Series aircraft after a long evaluation process during which we had confirmation from existing ATR customers of the outstanding support by ATR to its operators and its low overall operating costs.

‘Finland has a harsh climate. Over the years, changing weather conditions take their toll on the electric equipment of airplanes and small, annoying problems begin to occur. Consequently, new airplanes have essentially higher technical departure reliability than almost 20-year-old ones. We want to offer safe, comfortable and regular air traffic to our customers; with our new fleet we can do it better than before’.

Above: The order for the Finncomm ATR42-500s was first announced at the Paris Air Show in June 2005.

For the rest of this feature please see the February 2006 issue.