British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) will wet-lease four A321-200s from Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa) during the summer 2022 season, as the latter seeks to keep its fleet flying despite the impact of the closure of Russian airspace on its network.
"The first two are leased starting from May 3 and the remaining two starting from June. The lease period is four months per aircraft. The aircraft and crew will operate British Airways flights from London Heathrow to a number of European destinations," the carrier said in its quarterly report.
Finnair operates fifteen in-house A321-200s having sold four since the beginning of the year. The ch-aviation fleets ownership module shows that the carrier owned, through Finnair Aircraft Finance, OH-LZA (msn 941), OH-LZB (msn 961, both stored at Châteauroux), OH-LZC (msn 1185), and OH-LZD (msn 1241, both stored at Larnaca). The remaining fifteen A321s are leased. In turn, British Airways' fleet of the type comprises 18 units.
Both airlines are members of Oneworld and of the same transatlantic joint-venture.
The contract is the second large long-term ACMI commitment signed by Finnair for the Summer 2022 season after three A350-900s it leased to EW Discover (4Y, Frankfurt Int'l).
The Finnish carrier relied heavily on routes to East Asia in its network strategy. However, after Russia closed its airspace in retaliation at Western sanctions, the bulk of these routes became unviable from Helsinki Vantaa. Finnair shifted more of its long-haul capacity to North America but said it would operate at around 70% of its pre-pandemic capacity this year.
"We are adapting to the reality of closed Russian airspace, and we have started determining measures to adapt as we move forward. In terms of the network, we are pivoting to the west and to South Asia and also tapping into, for example, India and US flows. During the past month, our team has been working hard to find profitable usage for our idle capacity after the Russian airspace closure," Chief Executive Topi Manner said during the earnings call.
The carrier said that in addition to network rebalancing and wet-lease contracts, it would implement a EUR60 million euro (USD63.3 million) cost-saving programme through "distribution, aircraft leases, and the continuous improvement of operations". It underlined that its cash position was strong thanks to the EUR400 million (USD421.8 million) fully-undrawn hybrid loan from the government, which has recently been converted into a capital loan.
Manner conceded that the reorganisation of Finnair was likely a long-term change, given that the restrictions on Russian airspace were unlikely to go any time soon.
