Finnair has made “a little Brexit bet” by increasing flights to the UK, the airline’s new CE has said, as part of a wider push to compete with Chinese carriers on routes that link Europe and Asia. Topi Manner, who took charge in January, said the airline had added a daily return flight between London and Helsinki, taking its total to 6. It has also introduced a larger twin-aisle plane on one of its return flights, lifting the number of seats by 20% across all flights on that route. “If I look at the UK market, London is one of our fastest-growing origins . . . We believe in the UK market,” Manner said. This growth, he added, was not specifically because of Brexit but reflected a confidence in Britain’s underlying economy. Half of Finnair’s revenues come from passengers transferring to Asia. <br/>
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IAG has posted a 60% drop in Q1 operating profit before exceptional items, to E135m (US$152m), and offered a more gloomy assessment of passenger unit revenues for the year. Passenger unit revenue for the quarter to March 31 was down 1.4% at constant currency, says IAG. It expects passenger unit revenue at constant currency to improve in the remainder of the year, but foresees flat unit revenue for the year as a whole, against a previous forecast for an improvement. The group also predicts that 2019's operating profit before exceptional items will be in line with 2018's pro-forma result of E3.49b. The pro-forma figure takes into account the effects of the IFRS16 accounting change. In Q1, non-fuel unit costs were down 0.6% at constant currency on a pro-forma basis. Fuel unit costs for the quarter were up 11% at constant currency. <br/>
IAG is to demand additional compensation from Rolls-Royce over extra maintenance inspections for Trent 1000 TEN engines. "We are not expecting to see any issues with the engines, but the strict maintenance inspection programme requires us to take the aircraft out of service to complete those checks, and we will be pursuing additional compensation from Rolls," says the airline group's CE Willie Walsh. EASA last month detailed the inspection regime for the high-pressure turbine blades of the engines, which power Boeing 787s. The additional maintenance will have a small capacity impact on the 787 programme, says Walsh. Although he describes the situation as "frustrating and annoying", Walsh says he is now more positive regarding Rolls-Royce and the engine issues. <br/>