Review of Finnair flight from Helsinki to Singapore in Business

Finnair's New Business Class!

Most of the early 21st Century for Finnair's long-haul routes has focused on flying the McDonnell-Douglas MD-11 and Airbus A340-300, in the late 2000s the Airbus A330-300 arrived to allow Finnair to retire the Tri-Jet MD-11 and improve the efficiency of their fleet as US built McDonnell-Douglas MD-80 & MD-11 as well as Boeing 757s bowed out for an all Airbus fleet.

In late-2015 the airline became the European launch customer of the Airbus A350-900, by early 2017 this saw the A350 replace the A340-300, allowing Finnair to focus on using state of the art Airbus twin-jets to link Helsinki to North America & Asia.

Old Guard & New Guard: The Airbus A340-300 served the ultra-long haul routes for Finnair alongside the MD-11 & later A330-300 from 2006 to 2017, whilst a 19 strong fleet of brand new Airbus A350-900 took over from late 2015 onwards.

In February 2022, Finnair opted to retrofit its aging Airbus A330-300 business class and give its Airbus A350-900 a similar revamp to allow for a more harmonized business class experience across its long-haul fleet. By late 2024 the airline had finished retro-fitting its existing fleet with new Airbus A350s from 2022 onward being delivered with the new cabin! This also coincided with the airline introducing a Premium Economy product alongside the refit!

Aerospace AirLounge by Collin's Aerospace is a unique design based on a shell-shape which doesn't offer a recline in by can provide different seating positions and sleeping positions. Finnair as of early 2025 is the only airline using this design, making it a unique experience to the airline. Whether this will workout long-term or if a new future management will opt to refurbish to a more common place design remains to be seen, but a lot of people who have flown this new cabin now its had time to get used, its proving quite popular and positive! 

Perhaps, maybe more airline's will adopt this seat concept themselves?

The new Lounge seat (above) introduced on Finnair's A350s, against the 2015-2023 Business Class (bellow) cabin used originally.

Finnair Non-Schengen Lounge

After departing my Finnair Airbus A320 which arrived into Helsinki Vantaa's non-Schengen Area from London Heathrow, I was able to simply exit the aircraft and freely move around without requiring another passport check before the gate. 

Whilst on my way to the Finnair Lounge, I passed by the "Christmas Cabin" which resides year round at the Helsinki Vantaa Airport in the non-Schengen Zone. Finland is known as the Home of Father Christmas, so its kind of cool to see this little cabin set up for tourists, it even has a small sauna room. Nearby is a small scale model of Helsinki Vantaa Airport, which also has a plaque with the Airport's expansion plans.

Finnair is proudly advertising their new Premium Economy as well as their new Business Class throughout Helsinki Airport which is the airline's main hub. This advertisement is located just as you come up to the Finnair Lounge by Gate 51.

Here's the entrance to the Finnair Lounge, its one of my favourite in Europe, however I think the "Finnair Lounge" sign could have been written in the dark blue, like they use on the Finnair aircraft, make it look a bit more obvious as I think the embossed white lettering blends in too much with the white background.

You can enter the non-Schengen Finnair Lounge for free if you are flying in Business Class or have OneWorld Emerald/Sapphire Status, which for Finnair Plus is Gold Tier or Platinum. If you are a OneWorld Ruby (Finnair Silver) flyer you can potentially whilst flying a Finnair economy class or premium economy class flight from Helsinki Vantaa pay €25 (£21 or $26/USD) to enter for 3 hours. 

I do believe you can also buy lounge access if you don't have status when flying Finnair, but it costs more to enter, but I am not 100% sure on whether this practice is still ongoing.

My first port of call was to use the Airport Lounge shower facilities and get refreshed before my 12 hour flight down to Singapore Changi. The showers had all the essential items you needed as well as some single use items which were in eco-friendly packaging or made with wood rather than plastic, I didn't use the comb- but I took it with me as a souvenir! 

First off I went to the entrance of the Lounge to have a few minutes enjoying the Space Chairs which you can lounge in, they are very 1960s in design and are a fun way to relax with quite a bit of privacy if you want to do stuff on your phone or tablet device. Just at the entrance to the Lounge is also a little display of Finnair merchandise and old uniforms to showcase 100 Years of Finnair as the airline spent 2023 & 2024 celebrating its 100th Anniversary. Notice the "100" design is almost identical to the one used by British Airways in 2019 for its centenary?

The food selection wasn't too bad, despite being the end of the day. Quite a few people were in the lounge in this area, with the areas further from the food service area a lot more quieter. I found near the back of the lounge some private seating areas, so I set up there for the 2-3 hours I had in the Lounge.

There is also a manned bar in the heart of the lounge, so I opted to get a drink there to enjoy with my hot food, looking at the options, I decided on the "BLUESINKI" cocktail which contains blueberry juice, ginger beer, lime & vodka- it was delicious, very refreshing! I opted to have English Breakfast Tea for my next two drinks after this though!

Eventually my flight began boarding, the flight was showing a good 15 minute delay, meaning we'd literally be departing the next day…
Yes I made that joke!

Our flight finally had an aircraft allocated to it, but I'll discuss this in the next chapter of this Flight Report, but this is what FR24 was showing some 90 minutes before the flight!

Finnair AY131 (HEL-SIN) in Business Class!

Whilst some occasions to see Gate changes, on this occasion our flight to Singapore was boarding through the Gate which I was given the heads up for during my previous flight some 3 hours earlier. I boarded in Group 1-2 which was the Priority Lane for OneWorld Emerald & Sapphire (Finnair Gold/Platinum) flyers in Economy & Premium as well as all Business Class passengers.

This flight was part of a £542 return booking for four flights (LHR-HEL-SIN & SIN-HEL-LHR) and this business class upgrade was used by cashing in 40K Avios (60K Finnair Award Points) which I had stashed up over several flights since 2019. Seat Selection is currently complimentary on Finnair business class for all passengers, unlike on OneWorld partner British Airways.

I was flying a familiar face from the Finnair fleet in the form of Airbus A350-900, OH-LWH, I have flown on this plane back on a LHR-HEL flight in May 2017. This aircraft was delivered in April 2017 brand new to the airline. The plane was reconfigured into the new cabin layout in September 2022. I checked OH-LWH on FR24 and saw this was its first revenue flight in over 6 weeks, its last flight being on September 28th 2024 when it did a round trip to Gran Canarias from Helsinki. I guess it was in for a bit of extensive maintenance work.

I boarded in Group 1 which was for the Business Class passengers and OneWorld Emerald status flyers in the Economy & Premium Economy cabins. My seat for the next 12 hours would be Seat 8A! On this Airbus A350-900 there are only 8 Rows of Business Class with no second small second Business Class cabin which is seen on some Finnair A350s. The new cabin looked pretty cool, and there was a "new plane smell" in the cabin, likely from the aircraft being in maintenance for 6 weeks!

Seat 8A provided a nice view of the Engine & wing-tip as well as a good scenic view ahead of it, which would come in handy later in the flight!

Flying on this 12 hour flight, Finnair gives you a bottle of water, a decent pair of headphones, slippers, an eco-friendly Travel Kit (Amenity Kit), a blanket and pillow as well as paper menus for the meal services and beverages. A welcome drink was offered with a choice of Orange Juice, Champagne and Water… As it was my first full long-haul business class flight- I opted for champagne.

The cabin crew on the Singapore service are based in Singapore and they mainly fly between Singapore and Helsinki for Finnair. The pilots are Helsinki based flight crew and whilst talking to one of the crew later in the flight, the Singapore cabin crew are currently working the Airbus A330 flights between Singapore & Sydney on behalf of Qantas for now until the lease agreement hands over to Qantas Crew in 2025.

We pushed back for departure about 20 minutes later than scheduled. We made a prolonged taxi, luckily we didn't have to de-ice as the ground team at Helsinki did that before we finished boarding, to the far end of Helsinki Vantaa Airport and we departed off a very dark Runway 22R. We flew around the main city of Helsinki during climb out before heading South across the Gulf of Finland.

At the time of this flight Finnair was unable to fly over Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Iran, Israel and Lebanon- which resulted in this oddly shaped route towards India… We flew over the Three Baltic nations (Latvia, Estonia & Lithuania), Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, along the Black Sea occasionally flying over Türkiye before flying into Armenia and Azerbaijan airspace before re-joining the more familiar flight path.

Before 2022, this flight (crossing over the countries we can't fly over in 2024) would have left this flight at a scheduled block time of around 11hrs… Now the scheduled block time is now 12hr 30min… This is one factor as to why a lot of European Airlines have recently being pulling out of various Far-East Asian destinations and conceding to Chinese Airlines and Middle Eastern Airlines who can fly over these regions or are able to offer connections in destinations avoiding the restricted airspace and offer more competitive prices.

On the Finnair IFE Screen there was a time line of the flight showcasing what to expect during this long flight. I played a bit of Angry Birds during the first bit of the flight until the hot towel service was dished out. The variations of the Northern Lights cabin lighting is one of my favourite onboard features of Finnair's A350s!

Two options were present on the main course, I opted for the Reindeer Meatballs. Reindeer meat is a delicacy in Finland, in other European countries you can often find Venison meat which is Deer meat not specifically from a Reindeer. It was served with a nice mash of root vegetables as well as a side salad, a fruit plate (blueberry, melon & pineapple slices) and a Chocolate Brownie with a forest fruit sauce. A selection of hot rolls were handed out shortly afterwards. As part of my drink I opted for some water and a glass of Cognac.

About half hour after I finished my dinner plate, I was offered a small cheeseboard with a desert port, which I opted to accept. I was really going to enjoy as much as I could from this flight! I also got a top up of water as well.

There was a small galley space between the Business Class & Premium Economy Class behind my seat which offered various snacks and drinks, there was a similar set up at the front of the Business Class by the cockpit and forward lavatory. It was still dark outside so I went here to stretch my legs a bit and walk about somewhat freely without disturbing anyone. I tried to stick mainly to the Water and Blueberry juice on this flight, only enjoying alcohol during the main meal service. Staying hydrated is one of the best tricks to making it through a long-haul flight.

I made the bed up for a quick sleep, I wanted to see if I could sleep on a long-haul flight in this position. I can powernap in economy seats, but this was my first time trying this on a bed. I found it quite comfortable once I set everything up, so I tried to get some shut eye and I managed about 3.5 hours of this 12 hour flight, I didn't want to sleep too long as its usually part of my plan to stay up and then go to sleep in the evening local time once I've arrived at my hotel. It worked in Australia, and eventually it did also work in Singapore!

I started to wake up as we flew over Turkmenistan as the morning started to break, at this stage- I really wanted to use the bathroom. There isn't anything majorly fancy about the Finnair A350 toilet in business class- except there is a window in the forward Business Class loo! 

I had to keep the window shut most of the time, I had it up on one occasion to see out over where we were and I got a "minor telling off" by one of the cabin crew. Most of the other passengers were sleeping, but given I had a window seat- I wanted to see out of it. I found a way around it by only having it open a slither here and there before closing it, so I could enjoy views and not cause too big a disturbance. Whilst the seat I was in offered a good bit of privacy, letting light into a darkened cabin was something I couldn't get around…

I waited for daylight so I could do a photo or look at my Amenity Kit for the report and my associated travel vlogs, as you can see in the image below the kit contained a toothbrush & toothpaste as well as ear plugs and an eye mask. There was a little card with a message about the amenity kit. I have kept this kit in full as a "trophy" from my flight!

I grabbed a few items from the snack cart at the front of the cabin as well as another glass of blueberry juice. I also took the time to get a photo of the Business Class drinks menu. In business class all these drinks are complimentary to passengers, in economy class pretty much only soft drinks are complimentary with alcohol available at a fee except during the main meal service.

Good thing Finnair A350's have a tailcam feature, I enjoyed watching it whilst I had to keep the blind down. I moved between the tailcam, inflight map and watching various available US TV Show episodes including The Simpsons, ER & Family Guy. I did watch a film on this flight, but I can't remember which one it was.

As we flew past Thailand and Cambodia, the crew began the brunch service, two options were on offer and I opted to enjoy the Waffles, which came with morning oats & berries, some melon in a bowl alongside another salad, a pastry was offered alongside this and I opted for a pain au chocolate.. Drinks wise I opted for a hot tea and blueberry juice. It was quite filling and heavy compare to the dinner I had at the other spectrum of the flight. Still absolutely delicious! 

The mood lighting was converted to normal lighting and we were now allowed to have our window blinds up for the remaining duration of the flight. I noticed in the daylight that the Finnair A350 didn't have personal air vents available, only the reading lights.

Once we left Thai airspace and began flying over Malaysia airspace the aircraft began descending as we entered the last hour of our flight. As we lined up on finals for Singapore Changi, I noticed as we got lower all the ships that were arriving and departing the Port of Singapore as the Harbour is on the flight path as we flew in from the South over the Singapore Strait.

We arrived into Singapore Changi minutes behind schedule, our arrival brought us in on Runway 02L, as we slowed up just before leaving the Runway I spotted a massive "CHANGI" on a grass mound just before we got to the Ramp area that is used by the Singapore Air Force and their Fokker F-50 Transport and Maritime Patrol aircraft.

We taxied over to Terminal 3, where we were one of many international flights arriving from Europe or Australia. Among the various Singapore Airlines & Scoot aircraft there were the Qantas Airbus A330 & Airbus A380, China Southern A350-900, Etihad Airways Boeing 777, British Airways Airbus A380 and I also saw the Boeing 777-300ER of KLM wearing the "Orange Pride" livery take off as we taxied on stand.

I waited for the other passengers to leave the business class as everyone seemed keen to get off, I wasn't rushing as I kind of didn't want to leave the plane having had an amazing experience on Finnair's long-haul business class. Whilst I am not saying its the greatest business class, I personally will rate this as one of my best flights for years to come!

Once I did leave, I grabbed one last look of OH-LWH on the stand, to think in about 4 hours time it would be flying back to Helsinki Vantaa with a new crew whilst I'd be in my hotel sleeping away, ready to face a fun week across both Singapore and Malaysia!

Once I was in the Terminal, I easily accessed the Wi-Fi for the Airport in order to fill out the e-visitor form. As a UK citizen I don't need a visa to visit Singapore, but I have to fill out the entry form online before I enter the country. Using the biometric lanes was easy enough. Once through I made my way into the main landside area to get a plan together on how to get to my hotel, having a look around Terminal 3 it was very clear how much investment Asian countries put in their Airports as you wouldn't see this type of atmosphere in the UK or Western Europe!