A press release landed in my e-mail this morning which was the announcement Qantas is leasing a couple of Finnair A330s. The leases will commence in October 2023 and will last for a total of four and a half years.

According to Executive Traveller, the Finnish planes will be used on Sydney to Singapore (as QF291/292) from October 2023 and Sydney to Bangkok (as QF295/296) from March 2024. The reaction from Australian frequent flyers has been mixed to say the least, which is pretty amusing.

Leasing Finnair Planes Means The AirLounge!

Finnair have installed a non-reclining and pretty groundbreaking business class seat called the AirLounge on their fleet. This will be on the Airbus A330s that Qantas will be putting into service. The seat map here shows it to scale.


A friend of mine tried the new seat on the A350 and he concluded, “THE most comfortable seats on any plane I’ve ever been on. Seriously good. Cannot fault them.” From what I’ve read around the Internet, the general consensus is pretty much the same – it’s an excellent product.

Moaning Aussie Frequent Flyers

People are usually quite supportive of their home airlines and nowhere is this more evident than in Australia. Some people have been immediately negative about the leasing arrangement, such as these comments.


“Of course there is nothing positive to come out of this except additional capacity, an aircraft with what looks like a pretty decent business and premium economy class, a probable reduction in fares and a choice… nothing positive at all.”

“Sigh. Legacy of AJ creating a good business and lacklustre airline. Can only imagine these will be the oldest Finnair aircraft available. And what a weird experience to have half Finnair and half Qantas hard & soft product.”

“Qantas wonders why passengers with lifetime status are moving to other airlines. Here’s a good example with a further downgrade of Qantas service because of poor management of their fleet coupled with Thai & Singapore flying multiple times a day to Asia.”


Luckily virtually everyone else commenting has been pointing out just how amazing the new AirLounge seats are. Anyone who has actually experienced the product is essentially jumping for joy at the fact Qantas is leasing Finnair aircraft.

Overall Thoughts

It’s funny to see the knee jerk reactions from a certain group of Qantas frequent flyers at the news the Aussie airline is leasing Finnair Airbus A330s. I guess some people are just glass half empty people as a general rule.

This is a total upgrade from the usual Qantas business class seat. Anyone flying from Sydney to Bangkok or Singapore should actively choose to fly on the leased aircraft.

What do you think of the fact Qantas is leasing Finnair A330s? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Jakkrit Prasertwit on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.
All other images via Finnair.