Passengers boarding a Qantas flight from Singapore to Sydney might be excused for getting a little confused.
The A330-300 aircraft livery will be that of Finnair and the cockpit and cabin crew will be wearing Finnair uniforms.
Are we flying to Sydney or Helsinki, some might wonder?
Qantas codeshare partner Finnair will operate selected A330 flights
from Sydney to Singapore from the end of October and all flights between
Sydney and Bangkok from March next year.
The Singapore flights will alternate between the Finnair A330s and
the QF81/QF82 flights on Qantas’ own A330s, while the Bangkok flights
will operate daily under the new leasing agreement, Qantas will provide
the airline’s inflight catering, amenities and entertainment, while the
premium economy and business product will be all Finnair’s.
Some lucky business class fliers will experience Finnair’s AirLounge,
with its large shell-like seats cocooning passengers for privacy,
complemented by both an ottoman and a leg rest to create a fully-flat
bed without the recline mechanism.
The lease deal with Finnair is for the next six years to free up Qantas aircraft and crew for expansion on other routes.
In other indicator of the robust return to demand for travel,
Singapore Airlines has announced a substantial increase to its
operations across all five of Australia’s main airports from late
November.
Subject to regulatory approval, SIA will mount a fifth daily flight
to Sydney, taking the airline’s operations past its pre-Covid capacity.
SIA will also extend its A380 operations to Melbourne for an
additional month before redeploying the superjumbo to Auckland and
adding a fifth daily flight to the Victorian capital.
Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth will each have additional four-times
weekly services added to their schedule, enhancing connectivity to key
destinations in Europe and North Asia.