Finnair's Asian traffic grows by a third

Finnair traffic, measured in passenger kilometers, increased by 12.1% in March, while capacity was up by 8.5%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 74.1%, 2.3 points higher than last year. Asian traffic grew by 33.7%. All Finnair Group airlines altogether transported 762,100 passengers, which is 0.5% less than a year ago. Comparisons versus last year are impacted by Easter holidays, which in 2004 were in April. In addition, flight bookings were cancelled due to the strike threat by cabin personnel. Cancellations took place particularly in the domestic traffic.

Finnair scheduled traffic increased by 12.6% compared to March last year. Passenger load factor was 67.5%, up 3.4 percentage points. The number of passengers carried was 645,200, down 2.0%.

Departure punctuality of scheduled flights was 86.8% (based on a fifteen minute standard), 2.9 points lower than in March 2004. Including leisure flights departure punctuality was 84.9% (-4.0 p.p). Arrival punctuality of scheduled flights was 87.6% and that of all operations was 85.2%. 

Finnair's Tallinn-based subsidiary Aero AS, carried 65,700 passengers (+358.5%) on routes between Helsinki and the Baltic capitals and within Southern Finland. During March, Stockholm-based flynordic continued to gain market share and carried 92,300 passengers (+58.7%) on its Scandinavian routes. Aero and flynordic figures are included in the Finnair Group total figures.

Scheduled traffic

In scheduled traffic (international + domestic) revenue passenger kilometres increased by 12.6%. The change in capacity was +6.9%. Passenger load factor was 67.5%, 3.4 percentage points higher than last year.

In scheduled international traffic, total number of passengers was up by 12.3%. Capacity in ASKs was +11.2%, while RPKs increased by 18.9%. Passenger load factor was 4.5 percentage points up.

In European scheduled traffic, ASKs decreased by 1.2%, and as RPKs increased by 8.3%, the passenger load factor was 60.6%, up 5.3 points from the previous year.

In North Atlantic scheduled traffic, capacity increased by 16.4%. Change in RPKs was +14.3%, and passenger load factor for March was 82.3%, 1.5 points lower than in 2004.

In Asian scheduled traffic, the capacity increase was 30.0% mainly due to adding frequencies to Shanghai and Osaka since the beginning of June. Passenger traffic was up by 33.7%. Passenger load factor was 76.0%, 2.1 percentage points up. 

Domestic scheduled traffic decreased by 18.8% on a capacity decrease of 13.6%. Passenger load factor decreased by 3.7 percentage points to 58.1%.

Leisure traffic

ASKs for leisure traffic increased in March by 12.6%, and RPKs increased by 11.0%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 90.1%, 1.3 points lower than last year. 

Cargo

Cargo traffic increased by 4.6% in terms of cargo tonnes carried. Growth in scheduled traffic was +3.1%. Increase in Asian traffic was +10.7%. Volume in European traffic decreased by 4.4%. In North-Atlantic traffic cargo volume was in last year's level. Cargo traffic carried on chartered cargo flights increased by 15.3%. The cargo load factor was 58.0%. The cargo load factor in Asian traffic was 78.2% and in North Atlantic traffic 64.2%.

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