Blue to offload B717 fleet to Volotea, Delta

Blue 1 (KF, Helsinki Vantaa) has secured sales agreements with Spanish budget operator Volotea (V7, Palma de Mallorca Son Sant Joan) for four of its outgoing B717-200s Flygtorget has reported. 

"Demand for used machines is good," Michael Wångdahl, Blue 1's CEO said. "The first four have gone to Volotea in Spain and there will not be any problem in getting rid of the five we have left."

The Swedish aviation news site claims the Finnish operator's remaining five B717s will end up with Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson), now the world's largest operator of the type with eighty-eight mostly ex-AirTran Airways (FL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) jets acquired from Southwest Airlines (WN, Dallas Love Field). Other operators that had expressed a keen interest in the Finnish B717s include Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingford Smith) and Hawaiian Airlines (HA, Honolulu).

Late last year, SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) president and CEO Rickard Gustafson said the B717's high unit costs would see it phased out in favour of five B737-600s beginning in autumn this year. In all, SAS plans to transform Blue 1 from a commercial airline focussing on the Finnish domestic market, to a production company offering flexible wet-lease services to SAS. 

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Photo:PedroMB/FPP - AMS