Qantas to fly Finnair’s amazing new business class
There’s quite a surprise in store for Qantas travellers headed to Singapore and Bangkok…
By David Flynn, May 19 2023
Passengers setting foot on Qantas flights from Sydney to Singapore from late October 2023, and between Sydney and Bangkok from late March 2024, will be forgiven for briefly wondering if they’ve accidentally boarded the wrong plane.
That’s because the Airbus A330 jet parked at the gate and carrying that QF flight number will actually belong to Finnair, and be staffed by Finnair pilots and cabin crew wearing the uniform of the Helsinki-based airline.
With international flights soaring but facing a shortfall of aircraft, Qantas confirmed today it would add a pair of Finnair A330s to its fleet for the next six years in order to free up its own aircraft and crew to boost flying elsewhere.
Under a leasing arrangement between the two Oneworld partners, the two Finnair A330s “will operate selected Qantas flights between Sydney and Singapore from late October, and all flights between Sydney and Bangkok from late March 2024.”
While the Sydney-Singapore and Sydney-Bangkok Finnair A330 flights will be operated by Finnair pilots and cabin crew, passengers will continue to see Qantas’ inflight catering (no reindeer burgers), amenities (no Marimekko throws and pillows) and inflight entertainment.
But these Qantas Finnair A330s will offer a real treat to business class passengers: the Australian debut of Finnair’s radical but highly-praised ‘AirLounge’ seat, which is more like an over-sized cocooning sofa.
Finnair's latest business class seat is more like a lounge.
This is Finnair’s very latest business class, and unlike conventional seats it doesn't recline – instead, the entirety of the seat is a single space which the passenger is invited to treat like a sofa in the sky – and, in the airline's words, it's "an exclusive space that you can make your own."
Finnair's latest business class seat is more like a lounge.
Wrapped in a fixed contoured shell, with a high cocoon-like surround for privacy, it's a cosy crib where you can feel free to sit or sprawl, rest your feet on the ottoman or swing up the legrest and footrest sections (which the airline calls 'infill panes') to create a fully-flat bed dressed by a mattress and duvet.
Finnair's latest business class seat is more like a lounge.
This is a crucial take-away: while the seat doesn't recline, it still offers a lie-flat bed where your feet tuck into a recess beneath the shelf of the seat in front of you.
"We wanted to rethink business class and create more of a residential environment, emulating the comfort you would expect at home," explains David Kondo, who leads Finnair's Customer Experience team.
"By doing away with complicated seat mechanisms and using 3D curved shells, we're able to provide a larger flexible living space. This allows you to move more freely and take up different positions that traditional aircraft seats do not allow."
Finnair's latest business class seat is more like a lounge.
Qantas has confirmed the leased Finnair A330s will sport this radical new business class, with the configuration also now showing on a seating chart issued by the airline.
The leased Finnair A330s will also include Finnair's latest premium economy seat, in its own dedicated cabin of 21 seats between business and economy.
With up to a 38" pitch and an 8" recline the premium economy seays feature memory foam cushions, a single-piece 'waterfall' legrest, AC and USB-A power ports for every passenger, a 13" video screen paired with a noise cancelling headset, plus within-reach stowage for laptops and small personal items.
Finnair's latest premium economy seat.
While the Finnair A330s also offer inflight WiFi, it’s not known if this will be activated and available to passengers on the Singapore and Bangkok routes.
So which Qantas flights will feature these Finnair A330s? It will be easier to spot them, because Qantas is assigning the Finnair A330 flights their own special QF flight numbers:
- starting October 29 2023, watch for QF291 on Sydney-Singapore and QF292 on Singapore-Sydney – these won’t flying every day, as some days will see the conventional QF81/QF82 flights on Qantas’ own A330s
- from March 31 2024, Qantas’ daily Sydney-Bangkok service will be handed over exclusively to the Finnair A330s, under flight numbers QF295/QF296.
There will also be no change to earning Qantas Points and status credits on these flights, or your ability to book points-based reward seats or use points for upgrades to premium economy or business class.
Although these A330s will be operated by Finnair crew through to late 2025, Qantas pilots and cabin crew will take over for as many as an additional three years through to late 2028.
07 Apr 2021
Total posts 50
Qantas sure do like a past it's best rickety A330
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
25 Feb 2017
Total posts 10
This sentence doesn't even make sense.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
14 Oct 2012
Total posts 34
Qantas wonders why passengers with lifetime status are moving to other airlines. Here's a good example with a further downgrade of Qantas service because of poor management of their fleet coupled with Thai & Singapore flying multiple times a day to Asia.
27 Sep 2011
Total posts 36
How exactly do you figure this is a downgrade? Finnair is a terrific airline, their service is excellent, the new seats look fantastic and I for one can't wait to try it.
QF
11 Jul 2014
Total posts 897
I would like to say that is weird and strange but what is actually weird and strange these days.......
25 Feb 2015
Total posts 48
Sigh. Legacy of AJ creating a good business and lacklustre airline.
Can only imagine these will be the oldest Finnair aircraft available. And what a weird experience to have half Finnair and half Qantas hard & soft product.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
25 Oct 2019
Total posts 20
The average age of Qantas’ A330s are 16.5 years and Finnair’s are 12 years. So your point doesn’t really work
QF
11 Jul 2014
Total posts 897
Next we will see some Qatar A350's flying for Virgin to Japan and City of Angels.
Remember who's idea that is, by the way Ladies and Gentlemen.........
03 Aug 2020
Total posts 14
Of course there is nothing positive to come out of this except additional capacity, an aircraft with what looks like a pretty decent business and premium economy class, a probable reduction in fares and a choice … nothing positive at all.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 Feb 2015
Total posts 360
Still no aircraft available for Brisbane-Hong Kong.
23 Apr 2015
Total posts 23
Pretty sensible way of adding capacity quickly and with a quality airline. BA have had similar arrangements with Finnair for a while now and having travelled on a few routes (like Nuremburg to LHR) it’s been a pleasant experience!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
05 Oct 2016
Total posts 79
Nothing highlights more than this, the complete lack of forethought in fleet planning, of AJ. What a pathetic legacy. It basically in a nutshell shows QF is 5-6 years behind. What a joke.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
08 Mar 2022
Total posts 12
Looking forward to premium economy on the A330 SYD- BKK and early day SIN runs. Nice ROI in requesting a points upgrade for day flights from economy. In any case, also provides more upgrade opps from economy with 49 seats across PE and J.
Although how QF will treat the SIN frequency premium economy seats if theres switching with QF metal during the week is TBC.
24 Aug 2011
Total posts 1189
Not sure that a deep 8" recline in Premium Economy is a great thing when pitch is only 38". This leads to the same crush for the passenger behind that QF already has on its 787s and A380s.
05 Mar 2015
Total posts 395
This is amazing, so you could basically fly from Sydney to Singapore to Helsinki in Finnair business class LOL
Etihad - Etihad Guest
21 Jul 2019
Total posts 147
Its a treat to fly an exotic carrier so far from its home base. But my thoughts always return to how and why QANTAS found itself in such an awkward situation in the first place, that it HAD to look so far away to make up aircraft shortfalls. Gloss it over as much as you like, but this leasing arrangement signals a QANTAS management failure, not an innovative triumph of thinking or airline co-operation. It's a fail.
31 Mar 2014
Total posts 378
They have sent two A330's for conversion to freighters. Sounds like that might be the primary cause of this.
07 Oct 2012
Total posts 1249
Honestly, from a passenger perspective, why does it matter? Not every decision needs to bring out every armchair CEO. There will be a very good product flying between Sydney and Bangkok, and a bunch of other frequency improvements. This is a good thing.
08 Feb 2018
Total posts 129
This is fantastic. Now I can fly Qantas without having to fly Qantas.
20 Nov 2015
Total posts 424
Totally unexpected as however you might criticize Qantas and I'm sure many people will, this is a smart move. Leasing is normal in the industry of course but this makes sense all around for Qantas, Finnair has been suffering financially due to closures of Russian airspace so no doubt they welcome the money and have the spare aircraft and crew, and for once passengers don't get shafted, they will actually get a better business class product than the Qantas A330s, plus you also get premium economy too!
20 Oct 2015
Total posts 233
This is an incredible seat, not quite as comfortable for sleeping compared to a normal seat but decent enough and sure is much better for any time you spend not sleeping, as long as you have a few pillows to wedge behind your back and settle into. I would even say it's the best non-doored business class in the sky. If not 'the' best non-doored, then definitely up there with the best.
03 Jan 2013
Total posts 52
I’ve flown on Finnair several times over the last 15 years, through various business products on A330, A340 and A350s. It’s an excellent product, refreshingly Scandinavian - simple, yet elegant.
It’s always puzzled me why Qantas hasn’t made more of its relationship with this Oneworld partner as flying through Helsinki is seamless and quite literally the fastest route to Europe - Finnair has an impressively large European network.
Adding more capacity on two under-served routes can only be positive. Qantas has clearly differentiated which flights will be affected so if you want to avoid the Finnair product, you can - as with many things in life, it’s your choice.
Wet-leasing in airlines in nothing new. Many airlines around the world were caught out as a result of COVID with predictions of the rapid demise of A380s and 777s that are now hurriedly being returned to service. Many airlines didn’t survive or were bailed out by governments. The age of an aircraft is irrelevant provided it’s well maintained and the inflight experience is good.
Qantas has significantly expanded both domestic and international options - the travelling public is the winner as more and more choice is being added. I see this as an excellent move by Qantas.
21 Aug 2019
Total posts 68
Another Kangaroo route option via Helsinki now. Brilliant.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
18 Mar 2016
Total posts 18
Will this affect points and SC earning? #lovefinnair
27 Sep 2011
Total posts 36
Presumably if these are being run as Qantas flights, they'll earn per Qantas earn tables.
25 Feb 2022
Total posts 10
So what is economy - standing... the most ridiculous use of the term Business Class for seat I have ever seen or heard of.
25 Feb 2015
Total posts 48
Okay I take back my point re old aircraft. It still seems like a weird move but in the interest of increasing capacity at least they’re putting (someone else’s) quality product into the sky!
Velocity
19 Jun 2013
Total posts 60
PY to BKK!!! At last !!! Wahooo!!!! Now with a bit of luck, it might prompt TG to do PY, or at least sell some biz seats as PY, like they used to do on some. Scandi flights.
Etihad - Etihad Guest
19 Jun 2019
Total posts 18
Why are all the comments in this so negative? I would say the Finn Air product will probably be better than Qantas in all cabins. Also lets us use points to fly a product no one would normally fly. Qantas can then use the other aircraft for other routes. We would blame foresight but the reality is Boeing and Airbus have a huge backlog of orders. They could have gone to High Fly and done a Air NZ now that is something to complain about!
29 Feb 2016
Total posts 28
Wet leasing isnt new for Qantas - back in the 80's they leased at least one 747 from Tower Air (USA) and operated it to/from LAX. Bit of a shock getting on, not recognising the layout or colour scheme and not understanding the crew!
Qantas
19 Apr 2012
Total posts 1435
Wet leasing is fairly common and qantas have done it before. With a five year lead time on new aircraft and Finnair having surplus aircraft then it makes perfect business sense while qantas waits for new aircraft to arrive over the next few years. Hardly a fail.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
18 Feb 2014
Total posts 20
Very old planes, with seats maybe on for 1 or 2 hour flights, but not 9 hour flights
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on Qantas to fly Finnair’s amazing new business class