Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON
FINNAIR HAS concluded a lease deal with International Lease Finance (ILFC) which will lead to the introduction of four new Boeing 757s from September 1997.
The airline has signed an eight-year lease agreement, with extension options. All four aircraft, powered by Pratt & Whitney PW2040 engines, will be in service by April 1998. The 219-seat 757s will be operated on Finnair charter flights to Mediterranean resorts, the Canary Islands, the Middle East and India. The aircraft could also be operated on transatlantic routes. The aircraft will eventually replace two 314-seat Airbus A300B4s, but the airline says that the phase-out schedule of these has not been finalised. "We could keep the Airbuses longer," it says.
Finnair says that although smaller than the widebodied Airbuses, the new 757s will provide better cargo capability. "The A300's payload/range performance prevented us from using its belly cargo capacity with a full passenger load on longer flights, such as the 5h sector from the Canaries."
Meanwhile, Finnair says that a decision on its McDonnell Douglas (MDC) MD-80 replacement will be finalised by the end of the decade, and could be made considerably earlier. As an interim measure, replacement of its five MDC DC-9-41s with seven, newer, secondhand MD-80s has begun. A decision to replace its 12 DC-9-51s with more used MD-80s has also been made, although the final number of aircraft to be acquired has not been finalised.
ILFC has signed for the lease of two CFM International CFM56-5C4-powered Airbus A340-300Es to Air France for four years.
Source: Flight International
