Review of Finnair flight Oulu → Helsinki in Economy

Nordic Regional Airlines- A Brief Rundown!

Nordic Regional Airlines is a regional airline that offers a dedicated service on behalf of Finnair. All their flights operate under the Finnair brand and their planes now sport the Finnair livery on all aircraft with a fleet of ATR 72-500 and Embraer ERJ-190. But it wasn't always like this…

Nordic Regional Airlines (NorRA) start back in 1993 as a regional airline called FinnComm Airlines an independent airline operating domestic and regional services into Europe from Helsinki. Whilst the airline was independent, it did for a long time code share with Finnair on some of their services. This carried on until 2011 when the airline was bought by a joint venture of Finnair and Flybe.

Before & After! ATR Regional aircraft wearing Flybe Nordic livery (above, 2015) and NorRA livery (bellow, 2019)

Flybe Nordic replaced the wound down FinnComm Airlines, by taking on their fleet and phasing out the aging ATR 42 and the smaller Embraer ERJ-170 fleets in favour of the ATR 72-500 and ERJ-190 that make up the current fleet. The ATR fleets wore the Flybe livery, whilst the Finnair livery adorned the ERJ-190 fleet. This carried on until 2015, when Flybe sold their stake in Flybe Nordic (and their name) to Finnair, who rebraned the airline into Nordic Regional Airlines (NorRA). The ATR fleet got a dedicated Nordic Regional livery, but that lasted until 2019, when the airline announced all planes would wear the Finnair livery.

Which brings us full circle and onto the flight experience for this report.

The Oulu Airport Experience

I arrived into Oulu Airport from a few streets away from my hotel by bus, which was a roughly 30 minute journey from where I was picked up. It wasn't too expensive, which is always a big plus over the use of a taxi (I got an estimate of 45EUR on a taxi fare for the same journey). The bus to the Airport appeared to run every half and hour, but I wanted time to go to the Airport and chill, so I could have a look about Oulu Airport, and see my flight arrive.

I entered the airport through the same entrance I exited the previous day, and I went over to the check in area, easily finding security there, I must have timed it right as it was really quite and I got through the check point in what could have been 3 minutes or less. Going airside there was a short corridor which opened up with a combined café and small duty free selection with a seating area long a massive window between two of the gates. As I sat down I saw the Embraer ERJ-190 on the earlier flight depart for Helsinki, mine at the same time was merrily making its way to Oulu.

I grabbed a seat alongside a coffee to boost me through the wait as I gave my phone a top up charge whilst waiting (my phone battery is pretty shoddy). Quite a nice place to wait, just a shame there wasn't even a small turboprop flying during my wait.

After a short while, I went on a walk around airside. A small area was divided off for non-Schengen flights if any were being operated. However all the flights on this day were Finnair to Helsinki barring one Helsinki afternoon service by Norwegian Air Shuttle.

The Terminal started to build up slightly in anticipation of the next flight. Despite being home of the busiest domestic flight in Finland, and the amount of Finnair flights- there is no Airport lounges offered in Oulu. If the airport had more traffic on the international front, the airport & Finnair could easily make use of a Lounge, but that could be a thing for "Going Forward".

Finnair/Norra ERJ-195 (AY436)

If you want to see the previous flights on this Finnish journey, check the these out via the links!

Arriving on time was the Embraer ERJ-190 that would operate my AY436 to Helsinki Vantaa from Oulu Airport. The aircraft was OH-LKK, built and delivered to Finnair in November 2007, the aircraft has been operating on behalf of the airline via Nordic Regional Airlines since the airlines creation. 

The Emrbaer ERJ parked on the same stand as I left the previous day on the Airbus A320. I assume Finnair use the same stand at Oulu Airport regardless unless circumstances prevent it. Its a quiet airport with at least four stands with jet bridges.

I boarded in Group 3, despite it being a popular Finnair route- there wasn't many people off Groups 1-3 when I saw how many people were boarding in Groups 4-5 (basically Economy flyers with no status or no Finnair Plus), I preserved my seat at the time of booking for £4.50p when I found that Row 1 Seat A was available- I did not want to miss this chance!

Boarding was completed to the tune of us departing on time out of Oulu Airport. I got the unique chance to see the jet bridge be withdrawn from the aircraft before we pushed back, which was amazing to see!

We taxied along the taxiway to the far end of the Airport, we then had a clear run to get onto the Runway and make a swift rolling take off out of Oulu. The ERJ-190 put a nice bit off effort in as we quickly departed onwards and upwards!

It was a beautiful morning as we departing the Northern Finnish city headed south for the capital of Helsinki.

The bulkhead seat was quite roomy for me, I think anyone over 6ft tall would be very happy with the space. Of course the tray table folds out and back into the seat rest. I also found the seats quite comfortable, the 2-2 seating on the ERJ family is quite nice and miles better than what you get on a 3-3 configuration on the Airbus A320-family or similarly configured Boeing 737-NG.

The service on NorRA is the same as Finnair offer on the routes they do. On this domestic flight a basic snack based buy on board was offered alongside the complimentary Blueberry juice and Water. I opted for a blueberry juice- what more can I say?

As lovely and scenic as the flight was, it was over very quickly as 55 minutes passes by on short haul flights. We began our decent over Southern Finland as we made our final preparations to arrive in Helsinki Vantaa for an on time arrival.

We landed and taxied over to an area full of regional airlines and a few charter/LCC airlines that were operating from Helsinki, like the other Finnair ERJ-190 & A320, we parked up on a stand connected to a jet bridge and that gave us the chance to walk off without using a bus or walking using an open board- even though I was hoping we'd get an open disembarkation, ah well.

Before leaving, I opted to wait behind to grab a quick cabin shot of the ERJ-190 with no one near by, just in case it takes me a while to get another flight with one. In the cabin shot you can just about see the curtain that on international flights would separate the business class from economy class.

Thank you Nordic Regional! I look forward to flying with you again!!!

Bonus : Click here display hide

Pictures of Oulu!

A lot of you are probably wondering what it was like to visit Oulu, so I thought I would share a small collection of my short stop over there!

I took this photograph from my Hotel at 1am Finnish time, Oulu is so far North they get the "Midnight Sun"!

I found this really cool marina full of various boats. Quite a few boats were sailing around on this nice afternoon due to the heat wave that was hitting Finland in late June.

I went to a Boat that had been converted into a bar, the establishment is called "Booti Ravintola". I opted to enjoy a pint of beer and a cognac.

There were some scenic photos to be taken wondering through this really nice park just outside the city centre.

These two photos I was really please with during my afternoon/evening stay here!