Finnair rapidly recognized that the 747 was far too large and was one of only a few airlines which decided in favor of a 300-seater widebody without having flown some empty 747s. As a Douglas costumer since the days of the Douglas DC-2, Finnair already operated the DC-8 and the DC-9 so that the next logical step would be the DC-10. The order for two aircraft was placed on January 19th 1971 and the first aircraft delivered on January 27th of 1975. Later, two more aircraft were ordered and the four DC-10s were used on flights to the USA and Canada, but also on charter flights to the Mediterranean Sea. For its services to Tokyo, a leased aircraft was converted to DC-10-30ER - standard and this aircraft also flew the routes to Bangkok and Singapore. Beside these destinations, DC-10s were seen also on flights to North America and on some high-density charter flights. On November 29th 1990, Finnair had the honor to receive the first Mc Donnell - Douglas MD-11 which meant, that the time of the DC-10 had come to an end. All aircraft left the fleet by 1995, after twenty years of trouble-free service with in total five DC-10. Finnair owned some of these DC-10s until 1997, but they were on lease to Air Liberté and sold to this French airline. The fleet now consists of members of the A320-family as well as ATR 72, MD-82/83/87, MD-11s and some 757-200s for charter operations.
One of Finnairs DC-10 had special Santa Claus colors which were later also adapted on an MD-11.
Following aircraft were operated by or for Finnair:
