FINNAIR has announced it will launch daily flights from Melbourne to Helsinki via Bangkok from 26 October 2026 using its recently retrofitted flagship A350 aircraft.
The upcoming year-round service builds upon a strong existing connection to the local market out of Asia for the Scandinavian carrier, with Aussies being its largest offline market.
When asked at a press conference today about the bullish plan to go daily from the start out of Melbourne, Finnair’s Head of Network Strategy and Development, Aaron McGarvey, said the carrier needed to have the appropriate coverage.
“There is such a large amount of demand between the two continents and when you add in Bangkok, we firmly believe that seven flights a week is the right way to go,” he said.
“We will be allowing Australian travellers to find all their favourite destinations in Thailand with this service too,” McGarvey added.
The carrier’s network chief also clarified that Finnair’s decision to launch its own metal into Melbourne was made independently of its existing wet-lease agreement with Qantas, which operates out of Sydney via Singapore and Bangkok.
However, McGarvey conceded its agreement with Qantas did help guide its latest decision.
“Operationally, we learnt a lot from the Qantas wet lease and it enabled us to break down some of the barriers to help us to launch this service,” he noted.
Over the next couple of months, McGarvey confirmed Finnair will work with Qantas on opening up reward redemptions on the new flights, but would not commit to any specific details.
