Finnair to Furlough Pilots as Qantas Lease Downsized
Finnair has announced that it will furlough nearly 40 Airbus A330 pilots for eight months starting in September 2025 after a wet-lease agreement with Qantas was cut in half amid a labor dispute. The Finnish carrier had been operating two A330-300 aircraft under a partnership that saw its pilots based in Helsinki fly scheduled Finnair services to Singapore and Bangkok before taking over Qantas flights from Sydney to those cities. In recent months, industrial action by the pilot union SLL—comprising bans on standby duties and overtime—has led to repeated delays on Qantas flights and prompted the Australian airline to reduce the arrangement to a single aircraft on one route.
Since October 2023, Finnair’s A330s have provided critical capacity for Qantas on the Sydney–Singapore and Sydney–Bangkok sectors, allowing the Australian flag carrier to meet post-pandemic demand without immediately sourcing additional crews or aircraft. Cabin crew and catering were provided locally by Qantas and partner carriers, ensuring a seamless experience for passengers flying on the leased jets. The wet-lease was hailed as mutually beneficial when it launched in May 2023, preserving work for 90 of Finnair’s long-haul pilots left idle after Russian airspace closures forced the carrier to retire several A330s from its own network.
However, the ongoing dispute with SLL has seriously disrupted scheduling integrity. Union members’ refusal to work standby shifts meant pilots could not always be positioned in Singapore or Bangkok in time to operate their return flights after mandatory rest periods. Qantas, frustrated by the unreliability, informed Finnair it would scale back the wet-lease to one aircraft. As a result, 36 of the Airbus-qualified pilots will be stood down until May 2026, with no requirement for them to remain on payroll during that period.
Finnair’s Chief Operating Officer Jaakko Schildt called the development unfortunate for everyone involved. He noted that while Finnair remains committed to supporting Qantas through the remaining wet-lease, cutting capacity was necessary to maintain on-time performance and service reliability. Schildt emphasized that Qantas had always viewed the arrangement as a temporary solution until it could expand its own fleet and recruit additional pilots.
SLL representatives countered that union members had worked diligently to preserve the wet-lease service throughout fraught negotiations with Finnair management. They argued that the airline’s failure to reach a new collective bargaining agreement had created uncertainty, leaving pilots with little choice but to exercise their industrial rights. The union said it regretted the impact on pilots and stood ready to resume normal operations once a satisfactory agreement was struck.
Qantas, for its part, has assured passengers that the scaling back of Finnair-operated flights will not lead to any disruptions. The airline is already in the process of hiring new pilots and taking delivery of additional narrowbody jets to bolster capacity on the Singapore and Bangkok routes. Once its own resources are in place, Qantas will phase out reliance on Finnair’s wet-leased aircraft entirely.
The decision to stand down pilots reflects broader challenges in the aviation industry, where network planning must adapt quickly to labor disputes, regulatory changes and shifting demand patterns. Finnair’s experience underscores the risks of strategic partnerships when internal disagreements can ripple through international operations. As both Finnair and Qantas work to resolve their respective staffing issues, travelers can expect more stable service in mid-2026 when the furloughs end and full wet-lease operations resume—assuming the dispute is settled by then.
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