Finnair adds Helsinki to Melbourne via Bangkok

Introduction

The Finnish national carrier, Finnair surprised the world last week by announcing its latest destination, Melbourne! Slated to launch in late October 2026, the year round service will operate from Helsinki to Melbourne daily, with a stop in Bangkok.

While this is technically Finnair's first official route to Australia, Finnair aircraft have actually been a common sight at Sydney now for at least the last couple of years, although not for the reasons you may think. I'll dive into that further below.

The service will be operated using an Airbus A350-900, the backbone of Finnair's long-haul fleet

A little background on the Australia-Europe situation

It has been a while since we have seen a European airline launch service to Australia, we've mainly seen them leave the Australian market, with airlines such as Virgin Atlantic and Austrian Airlines pulling out of the market completely in recent years. Leaving British Airways as the sole European airline operating to Australia for a long time, with its London Heathrow - Singapore - Sydney service.

In recent years, we've seen more demand for the Australia to Europe market, seen especially with Qantas' adding new routes to Paris and Rome. Turkish Airlines has most recently taken advantage of this as it is geared up perfectly for European connections. The airline launched flights to Melbourne via Singapore and Sydney via Kuala Lumpur in 2024 and expects to launch non-stop flights to both cities once it has received its Airbus A350-1000s in the coming years.

While this seems a little odd that Finnair would launch this route, if you look into it more deeply, it does not seem that odd. The airline has been widely affected by the closure of Russian airspace, since February 2022. As one of the airline's key markets was quick connections to and from Europe and Asia, mainly done by the airline cutting through Russian airspace. This has meant that many of the airline's routes to Asia are now significantly longer, with certain routes to Japan and Korea, seeing more than an additional 3 hours of flying time.

This lead to many route cancellations, particularly to East Asia and seeing a lot of Finnair's long-haul fleet, consisting of 8 Airbus A330-300s and 18 Airbus A350-900s sitting around with nowhere to fly. The airline has actually done quite well in adapting to this situation. It has increased its transatlantic presence, increasing flights to Canada and The US. It has also taken over Qatar Airways' Helsinki-Doha service, operating this route in QR's place. We also briefly saw the airline opening hubs in Copenhagen and Stockholm, launching flights to New York and Bangkok from the 2 cities. On top of that it has also wet-leased some of its planes out to airlines such as Qantas and Eurowings, the Qantas lease is something I will go into more detail further down the post. So with the airline diversifying its strategy, this new route does not come as too much of a surprise.

Melbourne will become Finnair's newest destination, as well as its furthest destination

The details

The route will launch on October 26th, 2026 and will operate daily with the following schedule:

Helsinki - Bangkok - Melbourne

AY145 | Helsinki to Bangkok | 00:10-16:30

AY145 | Bangkok to Melbourne | 18:15-07:15(+1)

Melbourne - Bangkok - Helsinki

AY146 | Melbourne to Bangkok | 15:35-20:45

AY146 | Bangkok to Helsinki | 22:30-06:05(+1)

The route will use the airline's flagship Airbus A350-900 featuring 278 seats, split between 43 in Business, 24 in Premium Economy and 211 in Economy. The route is bookable for the whole leg, or as a fifth freedom leg between Bangkok and Melbourne. I logged onto Finnair's website to have a look recently and the prices seem very competitive, which makes sense considering that Finnair will be competing against THAI's double-daily A350 service between Bangkok and Melbourne and Jetstar's daily 787-8 service.

I think Finnair will be able to compete easily with these two carriers as Oneworld elite members between Bangkok to Melbourne may not want to travel on THAI as they are a part of Star Alliance and may want more of a premium experience than the likes of Jetstar which is a low-cost carrier. Being a Oneworld member also means that Finnair could potentially codeshare with Qantas on domestic routes out of Melbourne, offering more options for Oneworld loyal passengers.

The flights will feature Finnair's unique non-reclining Business Class seat

Bangkok is already one of Finnair's most popular destinations, seeing up to 3 daily flights. I can imagine the airline won't have much difficulty advertising the Melbourne tag-on

This is not Finnair's first time in Australia but it is technically their first official route

In late 2023, to try and find some usage for its grounded Airbus A330-300s, Finnair wet-leased 2 of them to fellow Oneworld airline Qantas, who was struggling with a lack of long-haul aircraft. These aircraft for the first 2 years flew in Finnair livery, operating with Finnair cabin crews based out of Bangkok and Singapore and Finnair pilots rotating in from Helsinki. They solely operated 2 routes on behalf of Qantas from Sydney to Bangkok and Sydney to Singapore. Meaning that Finnair isn't actually a stranger to Australia, with their A330s being a common sight in Sydney for over 2 years now.

A Finnair A330-300 taking off at Sydney, operating for Qantas

Things have now changed, the wet-lease agreement is now a dry-lease agreement, seeing the 2 leased aircraft now be painted in full Qantas livery and will operate using Sydney based Qantas crew. Leaving Melbourne now as the only Australian city that will see Finnair aircraft.

Conclusion

Finnair's Melbourne launch comes at a very interesting time for the airline and its strategy, it overtakes Singapore as the airline's longest destination and shows an airline trying to diversify its plans and destinations after the Russian airspace closure brought a lot of its competitive edge to a grinding halt.

I think if priced and advertised well, the route could definitely be a success, as Oneworld elites may not want to fly on Star Alliance member THAI and they may not want the low-cost experience of Jetstar. Playing its cards well, the airline could also offer onward connections with Qantas whether to New Zealand or other Australian cities, further strengthening the route. Whatever it may choose to do, it is definitely nice to see an airline taking a bold move like this and I hope it works for the best.