Finnair will use A320-200 wet-leased from SmartLynx in September/October

Finnair returns to five Finnish cities, gov't plans subsidy

Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa) will resume domestic routes to five provincial airports with the start of the winter season on October 25, only to shut them down again at the end of the season on March 27, 2021, the airline said in a statement.

The decision affects connections between Helsinki Vantaa and Joensuu, Jyväskylä, Kajaani, Kemi/Tornio, and Kokkola/Pietersaari, all of which ceased with the arrival of covid-19.

Finnair blamed the decision to drop the routes next spring on continuing poor demand due to the pandemic. Total capacity has sunk from 350 flights per day in October 2019 to an expected 70 to 80 flights a day this October.

“Winter-season flights are cost-effectively designed to provide some of the most important connections to the needs of the tourism industry and export companies,” the state-controlled flag carrier said.

These flights will enable some connections during winter, “while a working group considering the future of regional flights looks for alternatives to provide accessibility to the regions,” sales director Mikko Turtiainen...

Estonia's Xfly to open two Finnish bases

Ryanair in $1bn bond issue, $470mn share placement

Ryanair (FR, Dublin Int'l) launched and sold an EUR850 million euro (USD1 billion) bond on September 7, which was more than five times oversubscribed, and also raised EUR400 million (USD470 million) in a share placement on September 3, shoring up the company's balance sheet.

This was its first euro-bond sale since 2017, and the fact that investors put in EUR4.4 billion (USD5.2 billion) worth of orders for it was a sign that debt markets in Europe are starting to reopen to airlines, according to Reuters.

It was the second bond issue by a European airline since the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on passenger travel. As previously reported, Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa) issued a hybrid bond on August 27.

Ryanair’s earlier share placement was via a “non-pre-emptive placing of new ordinary shares [...] in the capital of the company to institutional investors and certain others,” the airline said in a stock exchange filing the day after the placing.

A total of 35,242,291 new ordinary shares were placed, raising gross proceeds at just...

Finnair to issue €200mn hybrid bond in late 3Q20