Finnair has just announced its newest long haul route, and it marks the oneworld carrier’s return to Canada…
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Finnair returning to Canada after 11 year hiatus
In the summer of 2026, Finnair intends to launch 3x weekly seasonal flights between Helsinki (HEL) and Toronto (YYZ). The route will operate between May 4 and August 29, 2026, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Sundays, in both directions.
The flight will be operated by an Airbus A330-300, with the following schedule:
Helsinki to Toronto departing 4:50PM arriving 6:35PM
Toronto to Helsinki departing 11:40PM arriving 2:45PM (+1 day)
The 4,113-mile flight is blocked at 8hr45min westbound and 8hr5min eastbound. Finnair will use an Airbus A330-300 for the route, featuring 279 seats, including 28 business class seats, 21 premium economy seats, and 230 economy seats. These planes have Finnair’s unique “no recline” business class.
This will be Finnair’s sixth destination in North America, complementing five routes to the United States, including to Chicago (ORD), Dallas (DFW), Los Angeles (LAX), New York (JFK), and Seattle (SEA). The Toronto service represents a route resumption, as Finnair last operated this route in 2015.
This seems like a safe enough addition for Finnair
I’m always happy to see network carriers adding routes to new long haul destinations, and in that sense, Finnair flying to Toronto seems like an obvious enough choice:
- It’s a 3x weekly seasonal route that lasts for under four months, so it’s hardly much of a commitment
- Finnair is part of the transatlantic joint venture with American, British Airways, and Iberia, so the collective demand for those flights is decent
- Historically Finnair’s long haul network has been largely about Asia, but between the closure of Russian airspace and reduced demand for China, that part of the carrier’s network isn’t what it once was
Given the extent to which Finnair has adjusted its route network away from Asia, I’m a bit surprised we haven’t seen more permanent routes to American hubs. Like, you’d think that service to somewhere like Charlotte (CLT) or Philadelphia (PHL) would easily fill planes with semi-decent yields, purely in terms of the volume of connecting traffic with the oneworld transatlantic joint venture.
Bottom line
In the summer of 2026, Finnair is launching a new 3x weekly seasonal route between Helsinki and Toronto with an Airbus A330. This seems like an obvious enough addition, with not much downside, given the limited frequencies and short season. I guess it reflects a lack of better opportunities elsewhere, given how the market has evolved.
What do you make of Finnair adding Toronto flights?
no recline business? no thanks
I look forward to seeing reasonably priced flights priced in CAD. BA always has great fares out of YYZ.
Finnair also operates a seasonal MIA-HEL nonstop: AY 8
I think this is pretty good by AY.
Toronto is a much more relevant market than PHL or CLT, both of which AA would prefer to be doing most of the flying out of.
If AA hadn't given up on BOS, and had a proper hub there instead of this wishy-washy semi-focus city nonsense, I think BOS to HEL would've certainly made sense.
Fantastic, with Virgin here, SAS going to daily, LOT increasing flights, and now Finnair - its good that have options that are not dreadfully horrid AC!
As a Toronto native, I could not be happier with the options that have been added in the last year or so. In addition to the ones you have mentioned, I am also excited to have Qatar as an option to EY and EK, both of which have become difficult to fly on points since AC went dynamic (in EK's case) and rogue (in EY's case)... Not to mention, I hate the monopoly (and hence the absurd prices) AC has out of YYZ to global markets.
Signature is still a nice lounge experience. But Signature INTL is falling behind fast. And don't get me started on the Maple Leaf lounge in YYZ, it makes my high school cafeteria look good.
I suspect that a partnership with Porter will be coming very soon. They can feed the Helsinki flights. Similar to BA selling Porter flights to feed thier YYZ flights to LHR.
Excellent news, now need Porter codeshare/connectivity.
Was wondering about who would provide these connections from HEL beyond YYZ. Porter would be excellent!