Blue1

Blue1 Oy is a Finnish airline owned by CityJet. It formerly used to be a subsidiary of the SAS Group and flew to around 28 destinations in Finland, Scandinavia and other countries in Europe mainly from its base at Helsinki Airport. It carried over 1.7 million passengers in 2011. The airline also used to be a member of Star Alliance and has its head office in Vantaa.

History

Early years

The airline was established in 1987 and started operations in 1988 as Air Botnia, flying Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirantes on night cargo flights and on passenger services from Helsinki to Kauhajoki and Seinäjoki. It started to supplement its unpressurised Bandeirantes with leased British Aerospace Jetstream 31s in 1993, but cash flow problems in the summer of 1995 caused British Aerospace to repossess the Jetstreams and brought Air Botnia to the point of bankruptcy, with last minute negotiations needed to save the airline, which continued operations in a reduced scale.

The airline was purchased by SAS Group in January 1998, with the new owners re-equipping the airline, replacing its Jetstreams with Saab 340s later that year, and receiving its first jets, Fokker F28 Fellowships in 1999. The elderly F28s were soon replaced as their high noise levels restricted operations, with Avro RJ85s being received in 2001, with its Saab 340s being replaced by larger Saab 2000s at the same time.