The main reason why I posed the question was that I often fly on tickets that allow me to choose from wide variety of carriers and doesn't penalize (cost extra) to fly first tier ones.

Finnair has a good franchise on its Asian routes. The big money is made on business and first class tickets. Most of the pax (to my understanding) on its Asian routes are connecting ones. I don't see why AY couldn't have competitive C product if they so wish.