Qantas to Lease Two Finnair A330s

Dark/Light Mode (19/05/23)  Qantas has entered into a long-term agreement to lease two A330 aircraft from Finnair.

The first part of the deal will see Qantas wet lease the two aircraft with crew for a period of two years, followed by a dry lease (aircraft lease with no crew) of two Finnair A330s for a period of 2.5 years, starting in 2025.

The wet lease of the first aircraft will start in October 2023, and the wet lease of the second aircraft will start in early 2024.

A wet lease is a leasing arrangement where one airline provides the other an aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance. In a dry lease arrangement, only the aircraft is provided.

Finnair A330 reg: OH-LTO. Picture by Steven Howard of TravelNewsAsia.com

The agreement with Qantas is part of Finnair’s efforts to ensure the optimal use of its A330 fleet, which is range-limited in its deployment in Finnair’s own long-haul operations due to the closure of Russian airspace. The agreement with Qantas concludes the optimisation of Finnair’s fleet following the Russian airspace closure.

During the wet lease period, the aircraft will be deployed in Qantas’ network on routes from Sydney and Singapore as well as Sydney and Bangkok.

Finnair pilots will fly scheduled Finnair flights from Helsinki to Singapore and from Helsinki to Bangkok; then, they will continue flying scheduled Qantas flights between Singapore, Bangkok and Sydney before returning to their home base in Helsinki.

The cabin crew are provided by Finnair partners based in Singapore and Bangkok, and the aircraft maintenance is performed by Finnair partners at the Qantas destinations.

“We are delighted to expand our collaboration with our oneworld partner Qantas,” said Antti Tolvanen, Senior Vice President, Network and Revenue Management at Finnair. “This agreement enables us to fully deploy our A330 fleet in profitable operations.”

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