Finnair to furlough 36 pilots as Qantas A330 wet-lease deal scales back

Finland’s national carrier Finnair has announced an intention to furlough almost 40 pilots for eight months due to an internal labor dispute involving a pilot union. The pilots to be furloughed are all Airbus A330-rated but due to the scaling back of a wet-lease deal between the carrier and fellow Oneworld alliance partner Qantas, are to be stood down from September 2025 until mid-2026.

Qantas has been using a pair of wet-leased Finnair Airbus A330-300s to operate services between Sydney to Singapore and Sydney to Bangkok since October 2023 and March 2024, respectively. The aircraft have been based at Sydney Kingsford-Smith International Airport (SYD) while Finnair pilots based in Helsinki, flew scheduled Finnair flights to Singapore or Bangkok before operating the Qantas routes to Sydney and back.

However, due to a dispute with the Finnair pilots’ union SLL, which opposes the wet-lease deal and has been ongoing since the end of 2024, the airline is cutting back its commitment to the arrangement by reducing the aircraft deployment to just a single A330.

GCmap.comThe airline states that industrial action is being brought by SLL members means that the integrity of the flight schedule being operated on behalf of the Australian carrier is being adversely affected, and as a result, the agreement is being reduced to just the one aircraft on one route. The flights are no longer being flown “with the reliability that is needed”, according to Finnair Chief Operating Officer Jaakko Schildt.

The wet-lease has appeared to be a ‘win-win’ for both carriers when it was first announced in May 2023. Finnair had found a use for two surplus A330s in its long-haul fleet, which resulted from Russian airspace closures, and kept 90 pilots in work. Meanwhile, the Australian flag carrier was able to meet burgeoning demand in the immediate post-pandemic era by sourcing additional aircraft capacity in the short term from a Oneworld partner carrier.

Cabin crew for the Qantas flights were sourced from Finnair’s other partners in Asia, while Qantas provided in-flight services and catering onboard to appease passengers confused by flying on a Finnair plane. Although the deal began well, industrial unrest soon disrupted the operation, with the SLL union instigating a ban on standby duties and overtime as recently as February 2025.

It is understood that the refusal by Finnair pilots to work standby shifts has resulted in subsequent flight delays to the Qantas operations, as pilots were unable to reach Singapore or Bangkok in time to operate the Qantas flights, allowing for the required rest period. Frustrated by the unreliability, Qantas has decided to cut the operation by 50%, sending one aircraft back to Helsinki. The other aircraft is due to remain with Qantas until 2027, although some sources think this date may now also be in jeopardy.

Markus Mainka / Shutterstock“The situation is unfortunate for all parties,” says Finnair’s Schildt. However, in response, SLL insisted that its members had protected the Qantas wet-lease operation throughout negotiations over a deal with the airline, adding that, despite the lack of progress with Finnair management, it had sought to preserve the reliability of the Qantas wet-lease flights to Bangkok and Singapore.

As Qantas is scaling back the operation to just one Finnair aircraft on one of the two routes (it is yet to be determined whether Bangkok or Singapore will lose service by the Finnair aircraft), the furloughs will involve 36 pilots being stood down from September 2025 until May 2026. Qantas has reported that there will be no flight disruptions caused by the reduction in Finnair-operated services and insists that the wet-lease deal was only ever intended as an intermediate fix until it had recruited more pilots and added more aircraft to its fleet.

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