Blue 1 (Helsinki Vantaa) will reduce its B717-200 fleet from nine to five aircraft as a result of decreased capacity demand from parent SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup). According to Finnish newspaper, Kauppalehti, with SAS and Blue1's current contract set to expire at the end of October, SAS has informed Blue1 that effective November 1, it will only require the services of five aircraft.
In the wake of the announcement, CEO Mikael Wångdahl told staff in a meeting last week that the resulting drop in capacity would also result in roughly 160 redundancies being made.
Wångdahl added that employer-employee negotiations concerning the airline's entire workforce would start on Tuesday, June 24, with lay-offs likely to start in early November.
Following an SEK800million (USD120 million) loss for its second quarter, SAS announced it too would effect redundancies with almost 300 positions to be affected.
