Blue1 will begin daily direct flights to Helsinki from London Heathrow on 30 March, replacing the current Stansted service.
The Finnish carrier ” a partner of SAS ” will operate the flights with two-class MD90 aircraft split into Economy and Economy Extra.
The latter seems to be a low-cost carrier”s version of business class ” it offers use of business class check-in, and the middle seat of the row is left open to give passengers more room.
Economy Extra tickets offer greater flexibility too, allowing customers to make last-minute changes or re-bookings on other SAS services if, for example, a meeting is cancelled or moved. It even entitles purchasers to a full refund upon cancellation.
Also, members of the SAS frequent flier programme EuroBonus will receive 50% more points per one-way flight when they buy Economy Extra tickets.
”Blue1”s direct Helsinki service complements the existing SAS routes from Heathrow and London City via Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo,” said SAS UK and Ireland general manager, Lars-Ove Filipson. ”It means that from London, SAS and Blue1 now have a total of nine daily direct and indirect services to the Finnish capital.
”Add to this the fact that Blue1”s ”83 one-way Economy fare for this direct service is the lowest on the market and it is easy to see why we are the obvious choice for travel to Helsinki.”
As for an explanation for switching from Stansted to the more expensive Heathrow, an SAS spokesman told ABTN: ”Heathrow is a key hub of the aviation world and has long been the airport of choice for the business and leisure market. It has been a long term goal to introduce Blue1 services to Heathrow.