Blue1 Oy was a Finnish

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

owned by

CityJet CityJet is an Irish regional airline with headquarters at Dublin Airport. It was founded in 1992 and has gone through a series of corporate structures. In 2023, it merged with Air Nostrum, forming Strategic Alliance of Regional Airlines (SAR ...

. It was a subsidiary of the SAS Group and flew to around 28 destinations in Europe, mainly from its base at

Helsinki Airport Helsinki-Vantaa Airport (, ) , or simply Helsinki Airport, is the main international airport serving Helsinki, the capital of Finland, as well as its surrounding Helsinki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the Uusimaa region in Finland. ...

. It carried over 1.7 million passengers in 2011.Annual Report 2011
sasannualreport2011.com Retrieved 22 August 2013. The airline was a member of

Star Alliance Star Alliance is an airline alliance headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. Founded on 14 May 1997, it was the world's first global airline alliance. Star Alliance has 25 member airlines that operate a combined fleet of over 5,000 aircraft, servi ...

and had its head office in

Vantaa Vantaa (; , ) is a city in Finland. It is located to the north of the capital, Helsinki, in southern Uusimaa. The population of Vantaa is approximately . It is the most populous municipality in Finland. Vantaa is part of the Helsinki Metropoli ...

History

Embraer EMB-110P OH-EBD Botnia HEL 280894 edited-3

Early years

The airline was established in 1987 and started operations in 1988 as Air Botnia, flying Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirantes on night cargo flights and on passenger services from

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

to Kauhajoki and

Seinäjoki Seinäjoki (; "Wall River"; , formerly ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of South Ostrobothnia. Seinäjoki is located in the western interior of the country and along the Seinäjoki (river), River Seinäjoki. The population of Sein ...

.Pagiola 2004, p. 42. It started to supplement its unpressurised Bandeirantes with leased British Aerospace Jetstream 31s in 1993, but cash flow problems in the summer of 1995 caused British Aerospace to repossess the Jetstreams and brought Air Botnia to the point of bankruptcy, but it continued operations in a reduced scale.Pagliola 2004, pp. 42–43. The airline was purchased by SAS Group in January 1998, who replaced its Jetstreams with Saab 340s later that year. Air Botnia received its first jets,

Fokker F28 Fellowship The Fokker F28 Fellowship is a twin-engined, short-range jet airliner designed and built by Netherlands, Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. Following the Fokker F27 Friendship, an early and commercially successful turboprop-powered regional air ...

s, in 1999. The elderly F28s were soon replaced as their high noise levels restricted operations, with Avro RJ85s being received in 2001. The Saab 340s were replaced by larger Saab 2000s at the same time.Pagiola 2004, p. 44.

Development since 2004

Air Botnia was renamed Blue1 in January 2004,Pagliola 2004, p. 45. and joined

as its first regional member on 3 November 2004. Blue1 became a full member of

on 1 January 2009. Blue1 left Star Alliance in November 2012 and became an affiliate of

Scandinavian Airlines The Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), commonly known as Scandinavian Airlines, is the national airline of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It is part of SAS Group and is headquartered in Solna, Sweden. Including its subsidiaries SAS Link and ...

. In 2005 Blue1 became the second-largest Finnish airline with more than 100 daily flights and the biggest operator between Finland and the Nordic nations Sweden, Denmark and Norway. In 2006 Blue1 started 10 new non-stop routes to Europe increasing its total capacity by more than 50%. In 2008 Blue1 moved its London operations from Stansted to

Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport , also colloquially known as London Heathrow Airport and named ''London Airport'' until 1966, is the primary and largest international airport serving London, the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdo ...

, and expanded its domestic business routes. In 2009 new routes to Lapland, including Paris-Kittilä were opened for the winter season and routes to Biarritz, Dubrovnik and Split for summer travel. Blue1 was the first network airline in Northern Europe to be granted ISO 14001 environmental certificate.

Flight International ''Flight International'', formerly ''Flight'', is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", i ...

27 March 2007 On 1 November 2012, Blue1 became a service producer for SAS. This means that marketing and sales were then handled by SAS and its flights carried the SAS flight prefix "SK". In March 2015, it was announced that Blue1 was to sell their entire fleet of Boeing 717-200s to

Volotea Volotea () is a Spanish low-cost airline registered in Castrillón and headquartered in Barcelona. History Foundation and early years Volotea was established by Alaeo S.L. from Barcelona, a company created by former Vueling founders, Carlo ...

and

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its ...

and was to replace them with Boeing 737-600s from its parent,

, however Scandinavian Airlines later cancelled the plan and considered to transfer some Bombardier CRJ900 from Cimber. In October 2015,

(SAS) announced the sale of Blue1 to

, which was to operate the company on behalf of SAS as part of a larger relationship.businesswire.com - SAS Enters into Agreements with Cityjet for Wet Lease and Sale of Blue1
1 October 2015 In December 2015, Blue1 did not operate any aircraft and its own website has been redirected to SAS's website. In 2016, Blue1 was dissolved and merged into its new parent CityJet.

Fleet

Blue1 Boeing 717-200 OH-BLJ ARN 2012-6-30

Last fleet

As of December 2015 - before its actual dissolution - Blue1 did not operate any aircraft as the Boeing 717-200s previously operated had been phased out without replacement.

Retired fleet

Previously Blue1 also operated the following aircraft types:

Onboard services

Blue1 offered two service classes, Economy and Economy Extra (previously Blue1 Premium). *Economy Class: Coffee and tea were included on all Blue1 operated flights. Sandwiches and other drinks were available for purchase from "Cafe1". Flights with short flight time had reduced service. *Economy Extra: Fast Track security and Business Class check-in was included where available.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Pagiola, Stefano. (October 2004) "Stars in Their Eyes: Finland's Blue 1 Regional Airline". ''

Air International ''AIR International'' is a British aviation magazine covering current defence aerospace and civil aviation topics. It has been in publication since 1971 and is currently published by Key Publishing Ltd. History and profile The magazine was fir ...

'', Vol 67 No 4. pp. 42–45.

External links

{{Navboxes , list = {{Airlines of Finland {{SAS Group {{Star Alliance Defunct airlines of Finland European Regions Airline Association Airlines established in 2004 Airlines disestablished in 2016 SAS Group members Former Star Alliance affiliate members Former Star Alliance members Finnish companies established in 2004