Finnair selected Airbus for flight hour services (FHS) to support its entire A320 Family fleet of 35 aircraft, Airbus announced.
The company stated that Finnair became the first European FHS customer for an A320 fleet.
“Following recent contracts in Asia Pacific and the Middle East region, this first FHS agreement from Europe demonstrates the growing trust placed in Airbus’ maintenance by the hour services by airlines around the world, both for widebody and single-aisle fleets,” the company said.
“Finnair will benefit from integrated material services including on-site-stock at their main base in Helsinki, access to Airbus’ mutualized spares pools and components engineering and repair services around the world,” it said. “The FHS contract covers ‘nose to tail’ material services including for engine components.”
Airbus will guarantee spare parts availability, generating value through increased fleet availability and operating maintenance costs savings, it added.
In a written statement, Juha Ojala, technical operations vice president at Finnair, said: “We continuously seek to create more value in our supply chain. This collaboration ensures an enhanced and innovative service for component reliability and availability while supporting fleet flexibility. We are sincerely pleased to strengthen the relationship between Finnair and Airbus.”
“We are very happy to see our Flight Hour Services recognized as an efficient means to accompany the progressive ramp-up of airlines’ operations in Europe, and we thank Finnair for their trust,” said Bart Reijnen, Airbus material services head. “For more than a year, we have worked hard to adapt our maintenance services and be able to provide more flexibility and reactivity to our airline customers. This service quality improvement is an additional way for Airbus to support the aviation sector’s recovery.”
Airbus also noted that the global fleet covered by FHS has increased by more than 25% over the past two years confirming the relevancy of flexible, power-by-hour solutions for airlines to secure efficient operations and contain costs.
Stressing the long-standing customer relations with Finnair, Airbus explained that the airline is operating Airbus A320 Family aircraft on its network in Europe and Airbus A330 and A350 on long-haul flights.
