Finnair have upped their order of Airbus A350-900 aircraft, with the airline exercising its purchasing rights for an additional eight aircraft.
Finnair Airbus A350 – Rendering, Airbus
These aircraft will be delivered in a two-classs configuration holding a total of 297 passengers aboard, to be used on their long haul network to the Americas and Asia.
The airline now has a total of 19 A350-900s on order, which will be used for expansion as well as replacing the existing nine quad-engined Airbus A340 aircraft that Finnair operate.
Finnair are the European launch customer of the A350, and are a pretty solid Airbus operator using aircraft from the A320, A330 and A340 families, with regional services operated by Embraer E170/E190 aircraft.
For Airbus, its a good sign as the order book for the A350 tips over 775 aircraft now – with an exercise of a purchase option to boot too.
Delivery of the A350s to Finnair will commence in the autumn of 2015. For Finnair which used to operate diverse aircraft inculding DC-10s and MD-11s, it’s more investment into the Airbus product catalogue, and allows them to use their current pilots to convert them A350 crew at a low cost.
And combined with the expected fuel savings, all those pennies add up…
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