[4][5][6] The airline was established in 1987 and started operations in 1988 as Air Botnia, flying Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirantes on night cargo flights and on passenger services from Helsinki to Kauhajoki and Seinäjoki.

[7] It started to supplement its unpressurised Bandeirantes with leased British Aerospace Jetstream 31s in 1993, but cash flow problems in the summer of 1995 caused British Aerospace to repossess the Jetstreams and brought Air Botnia to the point of bankruptcy, but it continued operations in a reduced scale.

[9] Air Botnia was renamed Blue1 in January 2004,[10] and joined Star Alliance as its first regional member on 3 November 2004.

In 2005 Blue1 became the second-largest Finnish airline with more than 100 daily flights and the biggest operator between Finland and the Nordic nations Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

In 2008 Blue1 moved its London operations from Stansted to Heathrow Airport, and expanded its domestic business routes.