Finnair celebrates its 90th anniversary

By BA Staff

Finnair celebrated its 90th anniversary on Friday, 1 November 2013.

 The world’s fifth-oldest airline still in operation, Finnair was established in 1923.

Today, Finnair specialises in flights between Europe and Asia, offering direct connections from Helsinki to over 60 European destinations and 13 Asian destinations.

Over eight million passengers per year fly on Finnair’s all-Airbus fleet.

CEO Pekka Vauramo says:

“We build on a legacy of building better connections between Europe and Asia and our vision of doubling our Asian revenue by 2020."

Finnair celebrated its 90 years of flying in various ways. As one of the special events to mark its jubilee year, Finnair distributed a special Finnair-themed edition of the Donald Duck comic book to all passengers on long-haul flights on Friday, 1 November. Finnair also commissioned a special batch of posters by Finnish graphic designer Erik Bruun to celebrate its 90th anniversary.

As part of the jubilee year, Finnair renewed its service concept and now uses tableware and textiles designed by Marimekko for Finnair on all flights in both Business and Economy Class. (See video below)



In addition, Finnair launched cooperation with two renowned Finnish chefs, Pekka Terävä and Tomi Björck, in September. (See video below)



The entertainment systems of Finnair’s aircraft have also been upgraded, nearly doubling the selection of entertainment on long-haul flights with 72 films and over 150 television programmes available in both Business and Economy class.

Finnair is harmonising its fleet and became the first airline to take delivery of the new Airbus 321 Sharklet aircraft in September. Finnair is also installing new, fully reclining seats in most of its long-haul fleet from January 2014 onwards. See fleet video below.



In spring 2014, Finnair will open a new Premium Lounge at Helsinki Airport. The Premium Lounge will be located next to the existing Finnair Lounge between gates 36 and 37 in the non-Schengen area and will complement its services. As part of the renewal, a sauna and private showers will be opened between the lounges, and a new tax free shop will be opened in front of the existing Finnair Lounge.

Finnair has received international recognition in its anniversary year: Finnair became the first airline to be selected in the Leadership Index of the global Carbon Disclosure Project on carbon dioxide emissions. Finnair is also the only Nordic airline to be awarded four stars by Skytrax, and it has been named Northern Europe’s Best Airline at the World Airline Awards for the last four years. In addition, it was recently named Best European Airline at the annual TTG Travel Awards. Finnair is a member of oneworld alliance, which is formed by the world’s leading airlines.

See more videos from Finnair celebrating various aspects of their 90 years in aviation.

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Finnair to re-paint Marimekko livery A330 due to copyright violation

Finnair will be re-painting its Airbus A330 OH-LTM with the blue-forest livery based on the Marimekko print Metsänväki (“Forest Folk”), unveiled earlier this month. Read the story here.

As per the airline

We introduced the Marimekko livery with the Metsänväki (Forest folk) print on May 7, as a part of our cooperation with the Finnish design house Marimekko. On May 29th, Ms Kristina Isola, who was the designer of the Marimekko pattern we used in our Airbus 330, admitted that she had used the original work of an Ukrainian artist Maria Primatshenko as the basis of her design. Ms Isola apologized for this and said she regretted it deeply. The news came as a surprise to both Finnair and Marimekko, who had introduced the pattern to their selection of designs in 2008. Ms Isola has worked for Marimekko for decades.

Finnair immediately took action and we had the pattern removed from our aircraft, as we take intellectual property rights very seriously.

The airline also has an Airbus A340 painted with the Marimekko designed Unikko (poppy) print, and will continue to use it.

Finnair will also continue its cooperation with the Finnish design house and use tableware and blankets, specially designed for it, by Marimekko.

Our cooperation with Marimekko continues, and we have introduced the tableware designed by Marimekko especially for Finnair use into our aircraft in mid May, and one of our Airbus 340s is painted with the iconic Unikko (poppy) pattern by Marimekko. The case with the other print used in the aircraft was very unfortunate, but it does not impact the good cooperation we have with Marimekko.

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Video: Finnair A330 being painted in special Marimekko print livery

Last year, oneworld member Finnair teamed up with Finnish design and fashion house Marimekko. All Finnair aircraft will feature a Marimekko for Finnair collection of textiles and tableware, featuring Marimekko's classic patterns which are specially designed to add a light and fresh visual and tactile dimension to the onboard experience.

On of the first prints to be used was the iconic 1964 Unikko (poppy) print by designer late Maija Isola. This print was painted on a Finnair Airbus A340, last October. This A340 flies regularly to Finnair's Asian destinations.

In the time-lapse video below, a Finnair Airbus 330 is unveiled with a livery based on the Marimekko print Metsänväki which combines elements of the Finnish forest. Designer Kristina Isola, daughter of Maija Isola, explains her inspiration

"When travelling to a new country, the view from the airplane window is usually the first contact you have with that country's nature"

This A330 will also fly from Finnair's Helsinki hub to the airline's 13 Asian destinations plus New York.



As designer Ruot Salainen explains

"All Marimekko designs are based on shapes, colours, and patterns"

Green for grass and trees, gray for stone, and blue for water. The duvets and pillows onboard Finnair aircraft feature a pattern in green so that "the passenger feels he is lying down in a field of fresh grass" explains Isola, in this video detailing the partnership

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