Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa) has said it would wet-lease a single A330-200 from Air Italy (Milan Malpensa) between October 12 and October 31, 2018, to cover for the capacity lost due to its own damaged A330-300.
"One of Finnair’s long-haul aircraft was damaged at Chicago O'Hare airport on September 25 when a high loader accidentally hit it. With the wet lease from Air Italy, Finnair ensures that flights to Chicago and Miami International can be operated normally while the damaged aircraft is being repaired," the carrier said in a statement.
The damaged A330-300, OH-LTS (msn 1078) has been grounded at Chicago since the incident, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows.
The Finnish flag carrier will deploy the wet-leased aircraft on all 4x weekly flights to Chicago and five roundtrips to Miami during the remainder of October.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Finnair's own long-haul fleet consists of eight A330-300s and eleven A350-900s. Air Italy operates four A330-200s added from its 49% equity partner Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) and two B767-300(ER)s.
The substitution marks a downsize as Air Italy's A330-200 has only 260 seats in a dual-class configuration, while Finnair's A330s have up to 289 seats in a triple-class configuration.
