Qantas boosts international capacity, wet lease Finnair aircraft

[Himeno]

NRT lounge will join HKG in reopening?

The NRT airport map suggests that the old QF lounge space has been taken over by another lounge. https://www.narita-airport.jp/files/official_guide_t2_all_en.pdf

 

[RichardMEL]

Very happy with the news in general. Specially the AY arrangement. Will probably grab one to try the new J seat (and DSC ) as I was planning to head to SIN later in the year anyway so works perfectly. Also surprised there seem to be fair numbers of J reward seats available.

Using the E190 on pacific makes some sense. Great use of an aircraft with the range to do it for thinner routes - good thinking there -and I'd prefer it to a 737 tbh.

Finally some actual real good news from QF imo.

 

[Mwenenzi]

The matching AY media report ---> Finnair to lease two A330 aircraft to oneworld partner Qantas

<snip>
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. Finnair has secured sufficient pilot resources to match its fleet size, including the aircraft leased to Qantas. The Qantas agreement does not impact the number of cabin crew at Finnair, as they are fully deployed in other operations.
<snip>

 

[stm1sydney]

It's pretty funny that all you long suffering QF customers (locked in and striving for LTG) are pleased with this news from Qantas ... but only because Finnair is providing a wet lease and therefore improving on the QF product.

 

[RichardMEL]

It's pretty funny that all you long suffering QF customers (locked in and striving for LTG) are pleased with this news from Qantas ... but only because Finnair is providing a wet lease and therefore improving on the QF product.

I've not flown the new J seat so have no idea if it's an improvement - but gets the rave reviews, so seems a good way to try it out (if one is headed that way!). Given the catering will still be QF, it's debatable if the whole experience would be better or not (I'd probably prefer AY catering tbh!).

It doesn't seem a worse product at least, which is probably a good thing overall for customers (in all classes)

The bigger picture though is doing a deal to allow for extra services in other markets and that's got to be an overall positive for everyone. The extra capacity may even impact pricing in various markets which is a win for everyone.

(LTG was long ago, so not chasing anything).

 

[jrfsp]

The Finnair J seat is very subjective, i think its good for night flights where you want to sleep but awful for day flights.

 

[justinbrett]

It's pretty funny that all you long suffering QF customers (locked in and striving for LTG) are pleased with this news from Qantas ... but only because Finnair is providing a wet lease and therefore improving on the QF product.

I'm yet to be convinced. I really like the new QF J seat (787/A330 etc).

That said, I think many of us are welcoming the extra capacity.

 

[Princess Fiona]

It's pretty funny that all you long suffering QF customers (locked in and striving for LTG) are pleased with this news from Qantas ... but only because Finnair is providing a wet lease and therefore improving on the QF product.

Got LTG many years ago.
Very pleased with the news, have flown the new AY seat many times and it’s definitely a huge improvement in hard product in my view on the existing QFi J seats. Much newer product.

I don’t really rate AY catering so quite happy with this combo.
Can’t see any downsides really.
Hopefully they keep their Wi-Fi too.
Bring it on!!!

 

[justinbrett]

I wonder if the AY FAs will be in QF uniforms? I'd think not.

 

[HS-TQE]

Probably not, but they'll probably mention "Qantas operated by Finnair" or "Finnair for Qantas" or any other variant phrase.

 

[ausfox]

I am not one of probably many people who enjoy the AY seat. To me at 185cm it does not fit. It does not recline to a comfortable position for my body. Good luck to those who enjoy it.

 

[RooFlyer]

I am absolutely stoked about this !!!!!

I think the AY Air Lounge is the best J hard product out there !!!!!
Can’t wait !!!!

Interesting! Coupled with the AY soft product, how do you rate AY against QR QSuites?
__________

From Mwenenzi's post, statement from AY

<snip>
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. Finnair has secured sufficient pilot resources to match its fleet size, including the aircraft leased to Qantas. The Qantas agreement does not impact the number of cabin crew at Finnair, as they are fully deployed in other operations.
<snip>

That's an interesting set-up and explains a lot. Basically AY are just extending their existing service from HEL to SIN and BKK through to Australia, like they were speculated to do pre-covid. But Qantas is now underwriting (or just plain paying for) it. I guess any interruption to aircraft or pilot hours upstream in Finnair will affect Qantas' operations.

"Cabin crew provided by Finnair partners in Singapore"? Wonder who they will be.

Just as a matter of curiosity, while wet leasing is fairly common, does the arrangement outlined above: A-B is by airline Y, then connecting through flight C-D is by airline Z ? Same pilots, same aircraft, different airline?

All that said, these flights would be worth catching. .

 

[Himeno]

"Cabin crew provided by Finnair partners in Singapore"? Wonder who they will be.

AAP Aviation has crew bases in Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Singapore, Delhi, Mumbai and Stockholm for Finnair.

 

[Brettmcg]

Interesting! Coupled with the AY soft product, how do you rate AY against QR QSuites?
__________

From Mwenenzi's post, statement from AY


That's an interesting set-up and explains a lot. Basically AY are just extending their existing service from HEL to SIN and BKK through to Australia, like they were speculated to do pre-covid. But Qantas is now underwriting (or just plain paying for) it. I guess any interruption to aircraft or pilot hours upstream in Finnair will affect Qantas' operations.

"Cabin crew provided by Finnair partners in Singapore"? Wonder who they will be.

Just as a matter of curiosity, while wet leasing is fairly common, does the arrangement outlined above: A-B is by airline Y, then connecting through flight C-D is by airline Z ? Same pilots, same aircraft, different airline?

All that said, these flights would be worth catching. .

I understood the statement differently - namely that it will only be the pilots that extend their flying from HEL to SIN/BKK and then onward to AU, not the aircraft. You would have to think the aircraft will be based in Australia during the lease period. I can't imagine QF would enter into or tolerate an arrangement where their leased aircraft are tied up upline due to AY issues.

These are not AY services in any way, shape or form. They are not being sold as an AY codeshare (according to QF Industry) so there is no underwriting in that sense.

 

[AIRwin]

AAP Aviation has crew bases in Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Singapore, Delhi, Mumbai and Stockholm for Finnair.

No BKK?

 

[Princess Fiona]

Interesting! Coupled with the AY soft product, how do you rate AY against QR QSuites?
__________

From Mwenenzi's post, statement from AY


That's an interesting set-up and explains a lot. Basically AY are just extending their existing service from HEL to SIN and BKK through to Australia, like they were speculated to do pre-covid. But Qantas is now underwriting (or just plain paying for) it. I guess any interruption to aircraft or pilot hours upstream in Finnair will affect Qantas' operations.

"Cabin crew provided by Finnair partners in Singapore"? Wonder who they will be.

Just as a matter of curiosity, while wet leasing is fairly common, does the arrangement outlined above: A-B is by airline Y, then connecting through flight C-D is by airline Z ? Same pilots, same aircraft, different airline?

All that said, these flights would be worth catching. .

Q Suites better overall as their service, F&B is absolutely amazing.

The AY J seat is much better than the QR seat, it’s much wider, more comfortable and easier to use.

EDIT: I’m pretty sure AY have Asian based cabin crew already. They operate a lot of the BKK/SIN- HEL routes. They are in the main younger than the crew that do the USA routes.

 

[elanshin]

I understood the statement differently - namely that only the pilots that will extend their flying from HEL to SIN/BKK and then onward to AU, not the aircraft. You would have to think the aircraft will be based in Australia during the lease period. I can't imagine QF would enter into or tolerate an arrangement where their leased aircraft are tied up upline due to AY issues.

These are not AY services in any way, shape or form. They are not being sold as an AY codeshare (according to QF Industry) so there is no underwriting in that sense.

I suspect what it means is that they now have more pilots being temporarily housed at BKK / SIN to complete the SYD portion of the flights on a journey.

The same 2 physical aircraft leased will just be flying on the SYD routes. Any issues on finairs upstream shouldn't have major effects unless they can't get pilots into BKK/SIN for an extended period of time for some reason.

But that'd have to be multiple flights back to back to back as you could just carry do crew positioning on the next flights to get relief pilots in if there's issues.

 

[dajop]

I understood the statement differently - namely that it will only be the pilots that extend their flying from HEL to SIN/BKK and then onward to AU, not the aircraft. You would have to think the aircraft will be based in Australia during the lease period

Yes, and that aside, the current April schedule between HEL & BKK is operated by 359 and furthermore that aircraft 1:50 on the ground in BKK. The SYD-BKK aircraft spends even less time on the ground in BKK. If it were, hypothetically to continue on for the wet lease, it would have 12 hrs on the ground in one direction and about 15 in the other. Wouldn't make much sense.

 

[elanshin]

Yes, and that aside, the current April schedule between HEL & BKK is operated by 359 and furthermore that aircraft 1:50 on the ground in BKK. The SYD-BKK aircraft spends even less time on the ground in BKK. If it were, hypothetically to continue on for the wet lease, it would have 12 hrs on the ground in one direction and about 15 in the other. Wouldn't make much sense.

Thing is whats to stop Qantas (or AY) changing their flight schedule to now pair the 2 services up. May not happen at launch (or maybe they do).

 

[Himeno]

I suspect what it means is that they now have more pilots being temporarily housed at BKK / SIN to complete the SYD portion of the flights on a journey.

The same 2 physical aircraft leased will just be flying on the SYD routes. Any issues on finairs upstream shouldn't have major effects unless they can't get pilots into BKK/SIN for an extended period of time for some reason.

But that'd have to be multiple flights back to back to back as you could just carry do crew positioning on the next flights to get relief pilots in if there's issues.

It would appear that, during the wet lease period, the Asia-Sydney flights operated for Qantas will be any one of the AY A330s that just happened to be flying the HEL-BKK/SIN flight that day and will then operate on to SYD for Qantas. Then for the dry lease period, there will be 2 of the AY A330s dedicated to the lease (unless they operate it in a way like Braniff used to operate US domestic Concorde flights).