Flybe Nordic enters budget airline market

Owned by Flybe and Finnair, newly formed Flybe Nordic takes over routes formerly operated by Finncomm and strengthens position in Nordic and Baltic countries.

Flybe Nordic, a new airline formed through the recently completed acquisition of Finnish Commuter Airlines by the British company Flybe and Finnair, will begin flights on 14 routes formerly operated by Finncomm. It is also establishing nine new routes from Helsinki, Turku, Tampere and Tallinn, according to Mike Rutter, managing director of Flybe Europe. He expects Flybe to hire 60-70 employees from Finland in the near future.

The new routes will also complement feeder traffic to Finnair’s international connections. They will also be included in Finnair’s flight schedules and Finnair Plus customers can accumulate frequent-flyer points on the Flybe Nordic flights.

Flybe owns 60% of Flybe Nordic and Finnair 40%. Flybe will be in charge of the operative management of the new company. Flybe and Finnair are aiming to build Flybe Nordic into the leading regional airline of the Nordic countries and the Baltic area. In addition to operating in Finland, they intend to extend the new airline’s network into Sweden, Denmark, Estonia and Latvia, challenging existing operators like SAS, Blue1, Air Baltic and Norwegian.

Janis Vanags, Vice President Corporate Communication at Air Baltic, believes that the Finnish market  has space for the new arrival and there is enough passengers for everyone.

Åsa Larsson, Head of Communications at Norwegian which has quickly expanded its operations in Finland in the past year, also welcomes Flybe Nordic’s arrival. “Competition is always a good thing,” he says.

Flybe Nordics’s new routes are:

Helsinki – Mariehamn (twice daily)
Helsinki – Tarto, Estonia (six times a week)
Helsinki – Trondheim, Norway (four times a week)
Helsinki – Umeå, Sweden (four times a week)
Tampere – Tallinn, Estonia (three times daily)
Turku – Tallinn (twice daily)
Vaasa – Tallinn (six times a week)
Oulu – Tallinn (six times a week)
Tallinn – Stockholm (three times daily)

Sources: Finnair, Flybe, Kauppalehti, Helsingin Sanomat