Finnair and Finncomm form joint venture maintenance company


FINNAIR OYJ   INVESTOR NEWS	  2 September 2008

Finnair and Finncomm Airlines have formed a joint venture, Finnish Aircraft
Maintenance Oy (FAM), which will specialise in maintenance services for
regional aircraft. Finnair and Finncomm Airlines will each own 50 per cent of
the company. The company has earlier operated as part of the Finncomm Group. 

The Civil Aviation Authority granted FAM an aircraft maintenance licence at the
beginning of August, at which time the company started operating. The license
covers ATR turboprops and Embraer 145 jets. The intention of the company is to
create at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport an effective maintenance organisation which
will serve both domestic and international customers. The arrangement still
requires the approval of the Competition Authorities. 

Juha Ojala M.Sc.(Eng) has been appointed managing director of Finnish Aircraft
Maintenance Oy. The company will employ around 60 people. A new maintenance
hangar will open at Helsinki-Vantaa in the Spring of 2009. 
“The new company combines Finnair's long experience of aircraft maintenance and
Finncomm's dynamism. The small organisation will facilitate flexible operating
practices. In this way we will be able to retain and develop in Finland high
quality maintenance expertise for regional planes,” says FAM's Managing
Director Juha Ojala. 

FAM's biggest customer is Finncomm Airlines, which currently has nine ATR 500
series aircraft. The size of the ATR fleet will grow to 16 aircraft by 2011.
Finnair discontinued its ATR traffic at the beginning of this year, when its
subsidiary Aero ceased operating. 

Finnair Plc
Communications
2 September 2008

Further information:

Juha Ojala, Managing Director, Finnish Aircraft Maintenance Oy, 
tel. +358 50 444 1811