From defence to attack
As part of our goal-directed growth strategy we acquired at the end of last year an 85 per cent majority shareholding in the Swedish airline Nordic Airlink, which has a light-weight cost structure and a flexible operating culture.
We aim to achieve a strong market share on Scandinavian routes with high passenger streams - routes on which there has been little competition to date. The company, armed with a new operating philosophy, began flying from Stockholm to Oslo, Copenhagen, Gothenburg and Luleå in late 2003. This year we will open new routes.
For Finnair, Nordic Airlink is a strong opening into new markets. In terms of initial investment the acquisition is small, but it has the potential to achieve a significant share of the Scandinavian market. Our aim is to grow Nordic Airlink into the Nordic countries' leading budget airline.
Another of our subsidiaries, the Estonian company Aero Airlines, began operating between Helsinki and Tallinn two years ago. Aero acts as an excellent bridgehead in the Baltic states, which will become part of the European common market in May 2004. Since last autumn Aero, with its light-weight cost structure, has also handled part of our turbo-prop operations in Southern Finland.
Competition in our own backyard has intensified quickly after the removal of restrictions. We cannot live on the illusions of the past. Competitors come and go; the staying power of each operator will be decisive. Those who can control their production costs and at the same time offer their customers a competitive service in terms of quality will win through in the end. |