Europe returns to Australia, after Turkish it's Finnair's turn: daily flights to Melbourne. And you can already book
In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s several European companies served Australia, obviously with one or more stopovers along the way. [...]
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Australia
In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, several European companies served Australia, obviously with one or more stopovers along the way. There were British Airways, Air France, KLM, Lufthansa, Alitalia and Olympic Airways. The connections were challenging both in terms of the number of pilots employed and the duration of the layover.
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Alitalia, for example, had to employ as many as four pilots and two flight engineers on the Boeing 747-200s with which it served Melbourne and Sydney several times a week. Who, practically, were returning to Rome no sooner than six days after their departure from Fiumicino.
What precipitated, however, the number of Old Continent carriers committed to the route to the continent 'down under' was the rapid expansion, in fleet and network, of the three Gulf biggies, Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad, whose hubs were and are perfectly positioned to act as a 'bridge' between the two continents, even breaking the 20-hour trip into a six- to seven-hour flight followed by a 12- to 13-hour flight.
In fact, also because of issues related to Australia's membership in the Commonwealth as a former British colony, British Airways alone (among the European carriers) continued to connect Europe to Australia. But while it used to serve Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney, now the only city it lands in is the latter, connected to London by a Boeing 777-300ER that stops over in Singapore en route on both the outward and return journeys.
His loneliness, however, was interrupted a year ago by theinitiation of Connections operated by Turkish Airlines to Melbourne (via Singapore with A350-900) and to Sydney (via Kuala Lumpur again with A350-900).
And in these hours a third European airline has announced that from Winter 2026-2027 (starting October 26, 2026) it will fly to Australia on a daily basis: it is Finnair, which will bring its Airbus A350-900s., already engaged in the vast network served by the Finnish company in East Asia, down under to Melbourne with stopovers along the way in Bangkok on both the outward and return legs.
This is by no means a head-turner: in the past few months Finnair has made up for an aircraft shortage at Australia's Qantas by supplying it with its A350s for some routes between Australia and Asia and becoming familiar with that market. And then both Finnair and Qantas are part of the oneworld alliance and the Helsinki-based carrier can therefore 'leverage' the kangaroo company's vast network in Oceania to feeder its flights to Europe.
Tickets can already be booked on Finnair's website. The total duration of the flight is 22 hours and 5 minutes, including stopover in Thailand. Departure from Helsinki is scheduled at 00:10 a.m. with arrival in Melbourne at 6:15 a.m. the following day. In the reverse direction, it takes off from the state capital of Victoria at 3:35 p.m. to land in Vantaa at 6:05 a.m. the next morning with a total travel time of 23 hours and 30 minutes. Convenient connections allow departures from Milan and Rome. Paying cash, from Milan in Economy is just under 1,200 euros, rising to 2,500 in Premium Economy and just under 5,000 in Business Class.
If, on the other hand, you choose to purchase your flight with Avios., the 'current currency' of Finnair Plus loyalty program members, the carrier's website does not yet give availability, nor does it indicate how many Avios are needed.
Finnair's A350s have three classes but two different layouts: one with 43 seats in Business (1-2-1), 24 in Premium Economy (2-3-2) and 211 in Economy (3-3-3) and a more 'dense' one with 30 seats in Business, 26 in Premium Economy and 265 in Economy.
