Finnair to Lease Four New A321s from BOC Aviation

Finnair has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Singapore-based lessor BOC Aviation to lease four new Airbus A321s.

The aircraft are scheduled for delivery to Finnair during the first half of 2017 and the carrier will lease each A321 for a minimum of eight years.

After becoming the first airline to operate Airbus A321s with Sharklets, having ordered five IAE V2533-A5-powered A321s with Sharklets in 2013, Finnair announced on December 30, 2015 that it had agreed long-term leases on four more new A321s from BOC Aviation

Finnair will have 209 passenger seats installed in each of the four A321s, the same number of seats as its existing A321s have. The A321 is the largest single-aisle aircraft in Finnair’s fleet.

In November, Finnair announced the temporary damp-lease of two A321s from summer 2016. (So-called ‘damp leases’ are leases of aircraft along with flight crews to operate them.)

According to Finnair, this arrangement is intended to cover the transitional period until the delivery of the four A321s now to be dry-leased from BOC Aviation for the longer term.

The A321 leases form part of Finnair’s fleet renewal, the first phase of which consists of replacing aging, four-engine Airbus A340-300 widebodies aircraft with new, twin-engine A350-900s for long-haul services.

To help boost the growth of its long-haul traffic, Finnair aims to increase its short-haul feed traffic over the next few years by adding seats to its existing narrowbody aircraft and replacing some smaller aircraft with larger ones.

Meanwhile, Finnair is selling  to various buyers four aircraft which are surplus to its fleet plan.

The agreements or MOUs include sales of one ATR turboprop regional airliner and two Embraer 170 regional jets, which will be retired from Finnair’s fleet in January and February and subsequently delivered to the buyers.

In addition, Finnair will sell an old A340-300 aircraft for part-out in the first half of 2016.

Details of the aircraft fleet currently owned and operated by Finnair are available on the company’s website at www.finnairgroup.com.