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Finnair Airbus A350-900 - The designer jet

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A350 in the morning sun from Toulouse.

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A350 in the morning sun from Toulouse.

Finnair wants to set itself apart from the competition with its service and a completely new cabin interior on board the Airbus A350-900. The carrier has completed delivery of the first A350, with 18 more to follow. The aircraft has already been tested by Connoisseur Circle on the flight from the Airbus plant in Toulouse to Helsinki and from Vienna to Helsinki. More on this in our next magazine.

Among the passengers on the delivery flight was Vertti Kivi, whose company dSign was responsible for the cabin interior design. His design impresses with Nordic elegance, with neutral grey colors, clear lines and, thanks to the wide cabin of the A350, an open, generous feeling of space. Accent colors can be found in the colorful pillows and bedspreads.

On board the three-hour flight to Helsinki, Kivi told Connoisseur Circle that it was the first time he had been commissioned to design a passenger cabin for an airplane. He visited Toulouse several times to discuss the feasibility of his design with Airbus. After all, there are restrictions and regulations that have to be adhered to. "Making compromises with our ideas was the biggest challenge," he said.

Finnair COO Ville Iho explains that the attractiveness of the new A350, combined with new passenger services and 25 percent fuel efficiency compared to other wide-body aircraft, will soon show economic success for Finnair.

By February 2016, Finnair is expected to have five A350s in service, mainly on North Asia routes. "Finnair has consistently continued to expand its Asian network since 2000, but compromises had to be made in the early days. Now that we have the A350 and the Airbus A330, we have the perfect long-haul fleet for this market," says Iho. He is confident that business will be even better next year.

Even more important, however, is customer satisfaction. As mentioned, Finnair is introducing a new service concept with the A350, including the position of Chief Purser. The Chief Purser is trained to adapt very quickly to changing situations during the flight and to personalize the service. Finnair will train around 100 flight attendants for this.

Iho also explains that by having Kivi design the A350 cabin for Finnair, they are able to differentiate the product and better meet the high expectations of passengers. "Kivi was involved in the new product from an early stage. We wanted to incorporate our Nordic experience. Without him, we would probably have the standard of a boring cabin and that's not what we wanted."

The Finnair A350 is currently flying on various routes within Europe to familiarize staff with the aircraft type. In scheduled service, the aircraft will then be tested daily between Helsinki and Shanghai Pudong from November 21.

Kurt Hofmann