Finnair Launching Helsinki To Toronto Flights In Summer 2026

Finnair has just announced its newest long haul route, and it marks the oneworld carrier’s return to Canada…

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?