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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Air France announces the winner of its Facebook contest with fashion designer Manish Arora

By BA Staff

Air France, with an aim to engage and stimulate their online fan base, had partnered with world famous Indian fashion designer Manish Arora and launched a contest on August 5, 2013 for aspiring designers to showcase their creative talents.

It was a month-long contest, which provided an opportunity to fashion enthusiasts to create a ready to wear look. All that the contestants had to do is take inspiration from the designs of Manish Arora and create his/her own design or embellish a look of ready–made garment and upload them along with a short write up on www.facebook.com/airfrance and invite their friends to vote for their collection.

Commenting on this contest, Yeshwant Pawar, General Manager, Air France KLM said:

“We are delighted with the overwhelming response that we have garnered via this inspiring concept. Through this initiative we were able to reach out to a much wider set of consumers and strengthen our social media engagement with them.”

After four weeks of voting, Mr. Siddharth Arya was voted as the lucky winner of the contest and was awarded with two all-inclusive tickets to Paris by Ms. Kamal Sengupta, Director Sales, Air France KLM.

The winner was also awarded with passes for Manish Arora’s show in Paris during “Paris Fashion Week” held on September 26, 2013.

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Design evolution of the Bangalore Aviation logo

by Devesh Agarwal

Over the years, with your support, Bangalore Aviation has evolved from a simple personal blog, to become India's largest aviation blog, and in the "top 15" of the world.

One the key drivers of this growth is our belief in "CIP" or Continuous Improvement Process. We believe in taking feedback from YOU, our dear readers, and trying to apply them as much as possible. You will observe we do not limit comments on the site, except those are foul in language or non-contributory in nature.

As the site has grown, it has undergone a refreshment of its logo. Today, a small story on the evolution of the Bangalore Aviation logo over the last five years.

The logo in 2008 when we commenced. It was simple and used basic Word-Art techniques.

Bangalore Aviation logo circa 2008

In 2009, we modified the logo to include the nose of G-OIJB "Ed Force One" the Astraeus Airlines Boeing 757 used by the music group Iron Maiden for their tour of India. Bangalore Aviation obtained exclusive photos of the group at Bangalore Airport.

Bangalore Aviation logo circa 2009

In late 2010, we realised that the logo needed to be refined to give a more professional look on our business cards. We also wanted to introduce brand colours to signify many things. We wanted colours from the flags of the United States and India, representing the duality of our site. The colour orange, signifies intellect, blue signifies the sky and world of aviation, and white represents purity of thought and integrity. Curved lines were brought in to signify creativity, forward and upward.

Bangalore Aviation logo circa 2010

However, the 2010 logo was a little jarring on the eyes when viewed on the website and could not be easily made in to a square icon to be used on various social media sites. In parallel, 2011 saw Bangalore Aviation gain traction, and a surge in traffic and reputation. By end 2011, based on suggestions from mobile users, we needed to refresh the Bangalore Aviation site, give it a new magazine style front page, along with a new look, brand, and a mobile site.

While I worked on the site itself, I contacted an old and dear friend, Narayan Gopalan, an avid aviation enthusiast and regular Bangalore Aviation reader. Narayan is a communication designer by profession, who has over seven years of work experience with industry big-wigs like Adobe Software India, and Ray + Keshavan The Brand Union, and specialises in working in branding, identity, and interactive domains.

Narayan took up my request, on a pro-bono basis, and I am very thankful for his contribution.

His first version was an evolution of the existing logo. In Narayan's words

Attached, please find an idea for a logo, and extending the branding across collateral. I have used the same colors but modified the shades a bit to contrast and soothe the eye. The concept behind the logo form (the symbol) is the juxtaposition of a cloud (symbolizing the sky) and the icon of a "thought bubble" - representing the thought, and analysis concept. The icon of a plane taking off gives it the aviation touch.

I have used the same structure of your existing site, but changed a few elements. The idea was to keep it simple, without too many colors and gradients so the main focus is on the news and reading the same without distractions. The background image, can be keep changing as shown in the 2 examples.

Bangalore Aviation logo circa 2012 first revision

Narayan and me continued evolving the logo through a series of explorations and revisions. The next major revision, and a precursor to the current logo keeps our original blue, orange, and white colours, highlighting the initials of Bangalore Aviation, B and A, along with the cloud representing both thought and the internet, and the aircraft icon taking off, representing aviation, and forward and upward movement representing the continuous improvement process.

Bangalore Aviation logo circa 2012 precursor revision

The final logo, which is our current logo circa 2012, as described by Narayan

is a play of typography combined with a unique element (the could) suffixed by a aviation related mnemonic

Current Bangalore Aviation logo circa 2012

From this logo, we have also developed two icon logos which are used on our Twitter account, Facebook and Google+ pages.

If you like Narayan's work and want to contact him for your needs, please e-mail him at narayangopalan82 [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks Narayan.

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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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