SAS' subsidiary Blue1 - fleet development



(Picture borrowed from Wikipedia.)

Finnish airline Blue1 is the spearhead of SAS into the Finnish market. The company has struggled to get the operation of the subsidiary to make a profit. I guess focus has been on taking market shares in the finnish market, from market leader Finnair. Profit will hopefully come later. Competition int the Finnish market has become even fiercer with the entry of Norwegian, and with Finnair's cooperation with Flybe, which has resulted in Flybe Nordic.

Blue1 was formed in 1988 under the name Air Botnia, and was acquired by SAS in 1998. The fleet for a long time carried the same livery as the fleet of SAS, but this was altered when the company's name was changed ​​into Blue1. Since the start of the company a lot of different airplanes has come and gone. As far as I know the company has operated the Cessna 402, Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante, Jetstream 31, SAAB 340, Fokker F28-4000, SAAB 2000, Avro RJ100, MD90 and now lastly the Boeing 717.

The latter type of aircraft will be the only one company, in line with SAS 'desire to cut down on the number of different aircraft types in the company. On the other hand, each plane actually has its own color scheme (small variations on a common theme), so some kind of variation remains for the planespotters!

In the video below you can check out the former airplanes of Blue1, the Avro RJ100 and the MD90.