an airplane flying in the sky

Finnair is adding a new longhaul route to Australia with a cool new Fifth Freedom flight, but the real story is less about expansion and more about adaptation.

Finnair Launches Melbourne Service With Fifth Freedom Flights From Bangkok

Finnair has announced new “direct” service between Helsinki (HEL) and Melbourne (MEL), marking the airline’s first route to Australia, which includes a Fifth Freedom segment between Bangkok (BKK) and Melbourne along the way. Passengers will be able to book travel solely on the Bangkok–Melbourne leg.

Helsinki – Melbourne
- AY145 – Helsinki > Bangkok – dep 12:10 AM arr 4:30 PM
- AY145 – Bangkok > Melbourne – dep 6:15PM arr 7:15AM+1
Melbourne – Helsinki
- AY146 – Melbourne > Bangkok – de 3:35PM arr 8:45 PM
- AY146 – Bangkok > Helsinki – dep 10:30PM arr 6:05 AM+1

Flights are scheduled to operate daily using Airbus A350-900 aircraft. For passengers traveling from Europe, the routing avoids Russian airspace entirely, instead pushing south via Southeast Asia before continuing onward to Australia. For Finnair, that detour is no longer optional.

Russian Airspace Closure Forces Adaptation

Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finnair’s entire business model revolved around geography. Its Helsinki hub allowed for efficient, short routings between Europe and East Asia by flying directly over Russia. Those routes were central to Finnair’s profitability and network relevance. Once Russian airspace closed to EU carriers, that advantage disappeared overnight.

As a result, Finnair has been forced to rethink how it uses longhaul aircraft that were once optimized for Asia. Some East Asian routes became significantly longer and less competitive. Others were suspended entirely. Adding Australia via Southeast Asia is part of a broader effort to redeploy widebody capacity in a way that still makes economic sense.

The Bangkok–Melbourne segment is an interesting add in a market that is already crowded. Demand between Southeast Asia and Australia is strong, and Finnair can pick up local traffic to help support the longer Helsinki–Melbourne operation. Even so, I cannot imagine that Finnair will be able to command strong yields on this route, as it faces competition in Europe from British Airways and Turkish Airlines, plus Qantas, Emirates, and Qatar Airways (I’m deliberately omitting Air India…).

From a passenger perspective, the product will be familiar. Finnair offers a rather unique business class seat on its longhaul fleet that I reviewed here.

> Read More: Finnair A350-900 Business Class Review

In short, this route is about network viability, not novelty…as I see it, it is not an ideal use of aircraft, but a pragmatic answer to the geopolitical drama that continues to unfold between Russia and Ukraine.

CONCLUSION

Finnair’s new Australia route is a rational response to a world in which its former geographic advantage no longer exists.

By routing through Bangkok and adding a Fifth Freedom segment, Finnair is finding ways to keep its longhaul fleet productive while Russian airspace remains closed. I do think this route will be attractively priced, especially the Fifth Freedom segment, and I hope to fly it myself!