New Record for Finnair's Passenger Numbers

In 2005, the total number of passengers flown on Finnair flights was 8.5 million, a new record for Finnair Group. Growth percentage compared to the previous year was 4.5. Traffic performance based on passenger kilometers, which takes into account the length of journeys, grew by 7.2% while the capacity increased 5.1%. This led to a passenger load factor of 72.6%, which is 1.4 percentage points higher than in 2004.

In December 2005, Finnair traffic, measured in passenger kilometers, increased by 2.1% while the capacity was up by 0.8%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 73.8% or 0.9 points higher than last year. All Finnair Group airlines altogether transported 654,900 passengers, which is 3% more than a year ago.

Finnair scheduled traffic increased by 9.4% compared to December 2004. Passenger load factor was 67.2%, up 2.6 percentage points, while the number of passengers carried was 563,100, up 6.5%.

Finnair's Tallinn-based subsidiary Aero AS, carried 58,000 passengers (+16.3%) on routes between Helsinki and the Baltic capitals and within Southern Finland. In 2005, Stockholm-based FlyNordic attracted 1.2 million passengers to its flights. In December, the company carried 95,400 passengers (+27.9%).

Since the beginning of 2005 until the autumn, average prices of flight tickets were rising, but because of tightened competition the rise ceased during the fourth quarter.

Departure punctuality of scheduled flights was 79.2% (based on a fifteen minute standard), 5.3 points lower than in December 2004. Including leisure flights departure punctuality was 77.1% (-5.7 p.p). Arrival punctuality of scheduled flights was 79.9% and that of all operations was 77.3%.

Scheduled traffic

In scheduled traffic (international + domestic) revenue passenger kilometres increased by 9.4%. The change in capacity was + 5.1%. Passenger load factor was 67.2%, 2.6 percentage points higher than last year.

In scheduled international traffic, the total number of passengers was up by 10.2%. Capacity in ASKs was + 6.1%, while RPKs increased by 10.3%.

In European scheduled traffic, ASKs increased by 4.4%, and as RPKs increased by 12.7%, the passenger load factor was 61.5%, up 4.5 points from previous year.

In North Atlantic scheduled traffic, capacity decreased by -42.9%. Change in RPKs was - 37.7%, and passenger load factor for December was 75.3%, 6.2 points higher than previous year.

In Asian scheduled traffic, the capacity increase was 22.8%. Passenger traffic was up by 21.2% and passenger load factor was 74.9%, -1 percentage point down.

Domestic scheduled traffic increased by 1.9% on a capacity decrease of -1.7%. Passenger load factor increased by 2.1 percentage points to 57.4%.

Leisure traffic

ASKs for leisure traffic decreased in December by 8.5%, and RPKs decreased by 9.1%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 89.7%, -0.6 points lower than last year.

Cargo

Cargo traffic increased by 2.5% in terms of cargo tonnes carried. Growth in scheduled traffic was +2.5%. Increase in Asian traffic was +21.9%. Volume in European traffic decreased by 3.9%. In North-Atlantic traffic cargo volume decreased by 35.1%. Cargo traffic carried on chartered cargo flights decreased by 27%. The cargo load factor was 62%. The cargo load factor in the Far Eastern traffic was 79.9% and in the North Atlantic traffic 80.7%.

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