Snowbird Airlines (Helsinki Vantaa) is a new Finnish charter airline planning to fill the void left in the Finnish leisure charter market following the bankruptcy of Air Finland (OF, Helsinki Vantaa) last year. Snowbird CEO Marja Aalto is one of several ex-Air Finland managers involved in the start-up of Snowbird and has announced plans to launch operations before the upcoming summer season with one A320-200 with plans to eventually operate a total of three A320s on behalf of Finnish tour operators.

Safi Airways (4Q, Kabul) will complement its two A320-200s and single B767-200ER with a first ex-Air Finland (OF, Helsinki Vantaa) B757-200 (MSN 26330) that has just been delivered to Kabul on November 1.

Air Finland (OF, Helsinki Vantaa) has suspended operations with its two B757-200s on June 26 and filed for bankruptcy. It had operated scheduled and charter flights from Helsinki to Alicante, Antalya, Bodrum, Chania, Dubai Int'l, Gazipasa, Heraklion, Hurghada, Malaga and Rhodes in cooperation with Finnish tour operators.

Germania (ST, Berlin Tegel) and Hamburg Airways (HK, Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel) have both not yet received approval by Turkish government authorities for planned charter flights on behalf of German tour operator Öger Tours to Gazipasa. The new airport is approximately 150km east of Antalya and serves several tourism destinations including Alanya better than Antalya. Due its short runway and location close to several mountains, crews require special training and the Turkish authorities need to approve each operator prior to operations to the airport. Other carriers planning to serve Gazipasa this summer include Air Finland (OF, Helsinki Vantaa), SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) and Transavia Airlines (HV, Amsterdam).

TNT Airways (3V, Liège) will operate its first ex-Air Finland (OF, Helsinki Vantaa) B757-200(F) on behalf of NATO (Geilenkirchen) in a combi configuration with a passenger and cargo section on the aircraft. Its parent TNT Express has finally accepted an increased cash offer of 6.85 billion USD and will be acquired by UPS (United Parcel Service). It is obviously yet unclear what impact that will have on TNT Airways and its partner carriers across Europe as UPS and TNT operate competing European hubs at Cologne/Bonn and Liège.