Finnair Forced to Slash its Wetlease Deal With Qantas Due to Prolonged Pilot Dispute

Finnair has been forced to slash its long-term ‘wetlease’ deal with Australian flag carrier Qantas because pilots at the Helsinki-based carrier are refusing to accept new work rules in highly contentious wage negotiations. Finnair now says it has no choice but to furlough 36 pilots.

The airline is placing the blame for the long-term furloughs directly at the feet of the pilot’s union, accusing the union of refusing to accept necessary concessions and of disrupting its flights with an overtime ban and other protests.

Jaakko Schildt, Finnair’s chief financial officer, said on Monday that the situation is “unfortunate for all parties,” following decision to stop one of two routes for Qantas.

Why is Qantas Wetleasing Finnair Airplanes in the First Place?

Qantas and Finnair first reached a so-called ‘wet lease’ deal in 2023 to operate two routes from Sydney to Singapore and Bangkok.

The long-term agreement involves two Finnair Airbus A330 aircraft flying the routes on behalf of Qantas. While Qantas provides cabin crew on these flights, Finnair still has its own pilots flying the planes.

Finnair was able to loan two widebody aircraft and pilots to Qantas because the closure of ongoing Russian airspace meant that the planes had become surplus to requirements due to range limitations.

Rather than basing a team of pilots in Sydney for the duration of the multi-year contract, the Finnair pilots operating these wet-lease flights for Qantas still live in Helsinki and only spend a short period flying the A330s between Australia and Asia.

That means Finnair frequently sends off-duty pilots on flights to Bangkok and Singapore, where they start their rotation working for Qantas.

How Pilot Protests at Finnair Disrupted Qantas’ Schedule

Unfortunately, the ongoing protests by the pilot union, such as refusing to work standby duties, mean that pilots expected to work the Qantas flights are not making it to Bangkok and Singapore on time, and that’s having a knock-on effect on Qantas’ schedule.

Back in February, Finnair warned that unless it could quickly reach an agreement with its pilots, Qantas could terminate the wet lease agreement early, which could have resulted in the permanent loss of 90 pilot jobs.

While Qantas says the agreement remains in force, Finnair cannot guarantee that it will have enough pilots to reliably operate Qantas’ flights between Sydney and Singapore, so it has decided to suspend this part of the wet lease deal.

Matt’s Take – Finnair Chose a Risky Strategy

There’s nothing unusual about airlines entering into wetlease agreements – sometimes, an airline needs to add additional capacity for short periods of time, and a wetlease contract is a perfect way to achieve this.

In fact, wetlease agreements are so common that there are specialist carriers dedicated to offering regularly scheduled air operators their aircraft and crews for this very purpose.

What’s more unusual, however, is when a commercial passenger airline like Finnair starts wet-leasing its own aircraft and crews. This is a direct result of the Russian airspace closure, which led Finnair to shift its business strategy to adapt to the dramatic change in circumstances.

The thing with wetlease agreements is that they are rarely certain. Contracts are often short-term or contain numerous caveats that allow an airline to break them.