This is a trip report covering two flights with Blue1 in October 2012, on their last week operating their own flights and not just as a subcontractor for SAS.

I had just gotten back from my Asia-trip, during which I got the news that Blue1 were ending their own flights, and would in the future only operate flights on behalf of SAS. This change would go in to effect in early November.

I had been looking to fly KF for quite some time, mainly to try their exotic 717's, but if I also wanted to try Blue1 as an airline, the time-frame for doing that had now become quite a lot smaller.

So for the very day after I got back from Asia I booked myself a last minute youth return to HEL from ARN on two KF flights, both operated by 717's. The price was a total of 800 SEK for both flights, about 90 EUR.

The simple routing, shown with the help of Great Circle Mapper:
October 24

Arrived at ARN 1½ hours before scheduled departure time.


I had checked in and printed BP's already at home, so I went right through the check-in hall to security.

FIDS:


Check-in hall:


I found myself airside less than five minutes after arriving at Terminal 5.






I went straight away through the terminal to the SAS lounge, where I indulged breakfast.


As boarding got closer I walked out to the end of the A-pier, where my gate was located.


At gate 7 I found a beautiful 717 waiting for me.


Not long after boarding was called, and I scanned my BP at the gate and went down the jetway.


KF842
ARN-HEL
Boeing 717
OH-BLH “Suven lähde – Summer Spring”

Once at the aircraft I learned that it was “Suven lähde” or “Summer Spring” which would carry me to HEL today.




I was greeted by the Finnish lady FA in the forward galley and once in the cabin I realized that OH-BLH still had the old seats installed. I was happy to see this since they were at the time being phased out and replaced by new grey-ish leather seats.

I had chosen seat 8F for this flight, and I reached it in no time.


Seat itself was pretty comfy. Pretty tight but okay legroom.


Nice and unobstructed view out the window.


The load was around 60%, I had a seatmate at the aisle seat but the middle seat remained open.

The cabin crew soon preformed their safety demo and we pushed back.


Then it was time to taxi.


Runway 01L was the departure runway of choice this morning, and we preformed a fairly powerful takeoff. It was an enjoyable one, and unsurprisingly it reminded me of the takeoffs of my beloved MD80's.




Runway 08/26, used for landings on this day:


Pretty nice view of ARN after takeoff:


It didn't take very long for us to reach safe height where the seatbelt sign was turned off and the crew begun preparing the service round.

Cabin view:


Overhead panels:


Seatpocket contents:


Nice slogan:


I was treated with some interesting views as I waited for the service cart to reach my row.

A place called Rimbo:


Part of the huge Stockholm archipelago:


Town called Norrtälje:


Nice views above the Åland sea:


The KF service concept in Economy was the same as SAS has, free coffee, tea and water. I had a coffee since I wanted one of those KF cups with a nice inspirational line on them, but alas, they ran out of KF cups right before me, and I got a normal SAS-branded one. I think they had more in stock but I didn't bother requesting one since I had one more KF flight coming up that day anyway.


The coffee itself tasted good enough and was washed down without any problems.

ARN-HEL is quite a short flight, so it didn't take long before descent was commenced. The crew cleared the trash and the seatbelt sign was soon turned on again.

Helsinki as seen during descent:




HEL:




We approached runway 15, and some nice views of runway 22R where an AY E-Jet was lining up for takeoff:


Wheels down!


Landing on runway 15 meant a short taxi to one of the Terminal 1 gates.

Views towards the terminals:




And parked at one of the T1 gates:


Deboarding didn't take very long, I stayed in my seat for a little while to deboard as one of the last ones.

My seat after the flight:


View towards the back:


I thanked the crew as I left the aircraft.

Up the jetway I went and I found myself in Terminal 1:


The aircraft I arrived on:


First thing to do here at HEL for me was to repeat the success from my last HEL-visit ( Åland And Last Day Of SAS At HEL: ARN-MHQ-HEL-ARN (by deltamartin Mar 18 2012 in Trip Reports) ) and have a Finnish Meat Pie.

Said and done, I soon found myself over at Terminal 2...


...where I bought myself one of these babies:


Very tasty, just like last time.

Next I went back all the way to Terminal 1 and to the SAS lounge:


This was my first time visiting this lounge, and I wasn't disappointed. A pretty nice SAS lounge with nice offerings.




It wasn't too busy but a few other people were around.

I spent most of my time in the lounge just nibbling on some of the offerings and taking advantage of the provided WiFi.


I became quite bored after a while though so I decided to head to the gate to watch my airplane arrive.

But first I looked at some other visitors to T1:


Probably operating for KF:


Golden Air... err sorry... Braathens Regional ATR's operating for KF (but maybe they were still known as Golden Air back then though...):


Gate 12, at the very end of Terminal 1, was assigned for my flight to ARN. Soon enough a 717 in a Star Alliance scheme showed up at the gate. OH-BLN would be my ride to ARN.




Gate area:


The inbound passengers were soon deboarded and boarding for ARN was called.

KF837
HEL-ARN
Boeing 717
OH-BLN

I boarded as one of the first ones and I was greeted by the female FA working in the front galley.


OH-BLN also had the old interior, with the blue cloth seats.


This time I went almost all the way to the back, to seat 22A. I had chosen this seat for this flight as I had sat in the front for the first one, and I now wanted to experience the sound and feel of the rear-mounted Rolls-Royce engines.


The legroom was slightly worse back here.


Boarding didn't take too long, the load was again around 50-60%, and I was treated with an open seat next to me.


The cabin crew preformed their safety demonstration and we pushed back.


Next followed taxiing past HEL's two terminals.


AY Longhauler getting prepared:


We soon reached runway 4R where we took off.


I decided to make a take-off video, in the video you can hear the nice humming of the RR B715 engines:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP1qLuk2HBQ





HEL:


Again the engines pushed us to a safe height in not too long of a time, and the seat belt sign was turned off.


The crew prepared and then preformed the service round, I again decided to have a cup of coffee, with a glass of water. This time the coffee was served in a KF-branded cup! Hurray!


”Never let what you can't do interfere with what you CAN DO.”


After my beverages had been consumed I decided to do a lavatorial visit.


Aft emergency exit:


And I snapped a cabin picture on the way back to my seat:


Soon enough we begun descending as we reached mainland Sweden, or thereabout.

Apparently the Swedish coastline had gotten some clouds:


But at Arlanda it was better, we touched down on runwat 26 on schedule:


Just as we begun braking my camera ran out of power. It was expected though (I hadn't charged it since I got back from Asia the day before, spare some 30 minutes in the ARN lounge that morning) so I had my spare camera in my pocket.

ET B738 parked, waiting for the evening departure to ADD via CAI:


Leaving the runway:


We taxied to gate 5 at the A-pier, right next to gate 7 which I left a few hours earlier.

I thanked the crew and deboarded, snapped a picture of my ride as seen from the jetway and again from the terminal:




And then my trip to try out the Boeing 717 and Blue1 had come to an end.

To sum things up,

Blue1 was a nice little airline to fly with. The service concept of course reminded me a lot of mama-SAS so it probably haven't changed very much for anyone (in economy at least) after the change to SK-flight numbers.

HEL was nice as usual, no complaints regarding the SK lounge either.

The Boeing 717 was a very nice machine to fly on, and I hope we'll get to see it in the SAS group for many years to come, with the MD80's being gone from SAS some time in Q4, if I'm not mistaken.

Thank you all very much for reading my report, feedback and comments is appreciated!

My next report will cover a Baltic duel, to and from Amsterdam.

Martin