Finnair's fleet to benefit environment

Finnair is to make its airline fleet more environmentally friendly with the addition of a new design feature known as a winglet.

The winglets, which will be added to the seven Boeing 757-200 aircraft in Finnair's leisure flights fleet, will increase the aircrafts' wingspan by some three meters and lift the wingtips from the ground by around 2.5 meters.

This additional length and height will improve the planes' aerodynamics, reducing fuel consumption and carbon dioxide and nitrous oxides emissions respectively.

Jari Valkama, a Boeing 757 engineer from Finnair Technical Services, commented: "The installation of the winglets improves the aerodynamics of the aircraft.

"The air drag of the aircraft decreases and leads to smaller fuel consumption. We have estimated that after the changes, the aircraft will use four to five per cent less fuel."

The first installation of wingtips will be carried out at Finnair technical services in the autumn and is expect to improve the aircrafts' range capability by 370 km or 200 nautical miles.

Finnair flies to 16 destinations within Finland and to around 50 destinations worldwide with plans to launch a scheduled service to Delhi in November.

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