Finnair is among the world-class international airlines which don’t fly to Australia. The Oneworld member stops short at several Asian hubs such as Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong, and in the past they’ve all proven popular places for Australians to connect to a Finnair flight to Helsinki and beyond.
But due to a novel aircraft leasing arrangement struck between Qantas and Finnair, Finnair’s Airbus A330 jets will soon be flown on Qantas’ Sydney-Singapore and Sydney-Bangkok routes for the next several years
And those A330s will be fitted with Finnair’s latest business class seats: the radical but highly-praised ‘AirLounge’ design, which is more like an over-sized cocooning sofa.
Finnair’s latest business class seat is more like a lounge.
Unlike all other conventional business class seats, this one 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 find their own comfort zone in any position they like.
Comfort your way on Finnair’s latest business class seat.
Of course, this sofa also serves as a wide straight fully flat bed, with your feet tucked into a recess beneath the shelf of the seat in front of you.
As you’d expect, Finnair’s business class still becomes a long lie-flat bed.
Flying Finnair from Sydney
The Finnair A330 will begin flying from Sydney to Singapore and back on October 30 2023, although only on selected dates: some days will see the usual Qantas A330 as QF81/QF82, while others will feature the Finnair A330 as flights QF291/QF292.
Beginning March 31 2024, the Finnair A330 and its brilliant business class will take over Qantas’ Sydney-Bangkok route, running every day of the week under flight numbers QF295/QF296.
The flights will even be operated by Finnair crew wearing their smart Nordic blue uniforms, although travellers will see familiar Qantas catering, bedding and inflight entertainment.
“Welcome
Either way, from Singapore or Bangkok you can catch the Finnair’s more modern Airbus A350s – also with the same business class – and continue all the way to Helsinki.
And from there, Finnair has several daily flights to London, some of which also feature the twin-aisle A350 with this same international-grade business class even on that quick three-hour jaunt.
(The give-away is that the seatmap for this ‘AirLounge’ A350 shows the first row as only the middle seats of 1D and 1H, with the window seats beginning in row 2.)
We’re not suggesting this two-stop Kangaroo Route (or should that be Reindeer Route?) is for those in a hurry – it’ll take at least 32 hours from start to finish, compared to a baseline of 24 hours on single-stop treks via the likes of Singapore, Doha, Dubai or Abu Dhabi.
And we would definitely recommend breaking your journey at Helsinki and taking a few days to explore this Nordic gem.
But the Qantas-Finnair leasing deal has no doubt resulted in a pleasing new twist for travellers eager to try something different, including what we regard as a star among the world’s best business class.