Tentative narrowbody fleet renewal plans at Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa) are underway but there will be no orders until the airline is back in the black, its chief financial officer, Kristian Erik Pullola, told an earnings call last week. It is a similar message to what the airline was telling journalists last year.
"Our focus has been on turning around the profitability," Pullola said. "After that, we feel that it’s appropriate to come back to the narrowbody renewal question. When you look at our fleet, the majority of the widebody fleet is very new. Half of the narrowbody fleet is still very good for many years to come, and it’s only half of the narrowbody fleet where we have renewal needs, and we’ll address those when the timing is right."
Finnair's narrowbody fleet includes five A319-100s with an average age of 23 years, ten A320-200s with an average age of 21.8 years, and fifteen A321-200s with an average age of 11 years. Pullola said the airline had made "a couple" of unspecified steps concerning a future narrowbody order but did not provide additional details. However, the CFO added that it will be an investment programme that will take place over a number of years.
