Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa) says the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (FCCA) has approved plans to sell flybe. (2002)'s 60% shareholding in flybe. Nordic (Helsinki Vantaa) to Finnish firms StaffPoint Holding Ltd and G.W. Sohlberg Ltd.

Announced as a Letter of Intent (LOI) in January, the transaction is valued at EUR1 (USD1.12), and will see StaffPoint become majority shareholder in the carrier with 45%, Finnair with 40%, and GWS with 15% once it is completed later this month.

Justifying its withdrawal, Flybe. last November said the subsidiary's sustained weak revenue inflows brought on by a declining domestic Finnish passenger market had forced it to withdraw from the project.

Flybe Nordic is the parent firm of Flybe Finland, a regional European airline which operates a number of flights from Helsinki Vantaa to domestic and European destinations for Finnair on a contract-flying basis.

Flybe Finland also serves five domestic destinations as well as Tartu, Estonia and Norrköping, Sweden at its own commercial risk.