Finnair load factors record high for April 2006

Finnair passenger load factors were record high in April 2006. Traffic, measured in passenger kilometers, increased by 5.3% in April, while capacity was down by 5.2%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 75.3% or 7.6 points higher than last year.

Finnair scheduled traffic increased by 9.3% compared to April last year. Passenger load factor was 73.9%, up 9.1 percentage points, while the number of passengers carried was 657,500, up 3.5%.

All Finnair Group airlines altogether transported 739,300 passengers, which is 2.5% more than a year ago.

Finnair's Tallinn-based subsidiary Aero AS, carried 68,200 passengers (-1.2%) on routes between Helsinki and the Baltic capitals and within Southern Finland. During April, Stockholm-based FlyNordic continued to gain market share and carried 100,000 passengers (+4.5%).

Departure punctuality of scheduled flights was 85.8% (based on a fifteen minute standard), 4.9 points lower than in April 2005. Including leisure flights departure punctuality was 85% (-4.8 p.p). Arrival punctuality of scheduled flights was 87.5% and that of all operations was 86.1%.

Scheduled traffic

In scheduled traffic (international + domestic) revenue passenger kilometres increased by 9.3%. The change in capacity was - 4.1%. Passenger load factor was 73.9%, 9.1 percentage points higher than last year.

In scheduled international traffic, the total number of passengers was up by 8.5%. Capacity in ASKs was -2.9%, while RPKs increased by 11.2%.

In European scheduled traffic, ASKs decreased by 5.5%, and as RPKs increased by 11.2%, the passenger load factor was 69.2%, up 10.4 points from the previous year.

In North Atlantic scheduled traffic, capacity decreased by -32.6%. Change in RPKs was -18.1%, and the passenger load factor for April was 86.1%, 15.2 points higher than previous year.

In Asian scheduled traffic, the capacity increase was 7.6%. Passenger traffic was up by 17.7% and the passenger load factor was 82%, 7 percentage points up.

Domestic scheduled traffic decreased by 5% on a capacity decrease of -12.2%. The passenger load factor increased by 4.6 percentage points to 60.6%.

Leisure traffic

ASKs for leisure traffic decreased in April by 9.3%, and RPKs decreased by 6.9%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 80.9%, 2.1 points higher than last year.

Cargo

Cargo traffic decreased by 2.7% in terms of cargo tonnes carried. Growth in scheduled traffic was -0.5%. Increase in Asian traffic was +14%.  Volume in European traffic decreased by 8%. In North-Atlantic traffic cargo volume decreased by 30.4%. Cargo traffic carried on chartered cargo flights decreased by 13.3%. The cargo load factor was 65%. The cargo load factor in Far Eastern traffic was 82.6% and in the North Atlantic traffic 78.2%.

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