In order to strengthen the SAS Group's long term position in Finland and improve the profitability in Blue1, the company has decided to phase out the remaining 5 Avro RJ-85 aircraft and streamline to Boeing 717. The phase out of the Avro fleet is expected to start in August 2011 and will result in a maximum of 85 redundancies within Blue1.
The refocus on the Finnish market will also result in the closure of a number of European destinations. Some capacity adjustments will also be made on Finnish domestic routes. At the same time the Tampere-Copenhagen route will be opened.