Qantas Partners with Finnair for Airbus A330 Wet-Lease Agreement
Qantas is expanding its international capacity and aiming to return to pre-Covid levels by March 2024. To achieve this, the airline will wet-lease two Airbus A330s from Finnair and introduce Embraer E190s on certain Pacific Islands routes.
During the northern winter scheduling season starting on October 29, Qantas plans to add over one million seats to its international network. They will achieve this by bringing back aircraft from storage, receiving new Boeing 787-9 deliveries, and utilizing the aircraft provided by Finnair.
Alan Joyce, Qantas' CEO, highlights the strong rebound in international travel demand since borders reopened. He states that this network expansion will provide hundreds of thousands of additional seats in time for the busy Australian summer holiday season.
Qantas will primarily focus on its Asian network. From October 29, they will resume Sydney-Shanghai flights, reentering the mainland Chinese market after a three-year absence. Additionally, capacity to Hong Kong will increase, with Melbourne flights going from four per week to daily, and Sydney services seeing a 50% boost over the peak period, employing a combination of A330s and A380s.
Starting November 26, Qantas will double its services to Tokyo. Sydney-Tokyo Haneda flights will go from daily to double-daily frequencies, while Melbourne and Brisbane will increase to daily flights but will operate from Narita airport.
The Finnair aircraft will operate selected flights between Sydney and Singapore starting in late October, and all flights between Sydney and Bangkok from late March 2024.
Qantas will also enhance its transpacific routes. Melbourne-Los Angeles flights will increase from daily to nine per week, including more A380-operated flights. Sydney-Auckland-New York services will also see an increase from three to four times per week.
Furthermore, Qantas will introduce E190-E1s from Alliance Airlines to launch new services from Brisbane to Wellington and Honiara. These routes will operate daily and thrice-weekly, respectively. Flights from Sydney to Christchurch and Queenstown will also increase to twice-daily.
The inclusion of wet-leased aircraft is an unusual move for Qantas. Finnair cabin crew and pilots will operate the A330s for two-and-a-half years before transitioning to a dry-lease agreement from late 2025, for up to three years.
Qantas currently has 15 A330-200s and 10 A330-300s in its fleet, with three -200s in storage. Finnair operates eight A330-300s and had previously announced fleet reductions due to challenges arising from the war in Ukraine and the closure of Siberian flight routes.