Finnair Asian Traffic up over 20% in May 2006

In May 2006, Finnair Asian traffic grew 22.7%, measured in passenger kilometers, compared to May last year. The Number of passengers increased by 24.8% and European traffic grew by 12.4%. Half of the revenues in scheduled traffic is generated in European traffic and 30% in Asian traffic. Total scheduled traffic increased by 13.5% while the passenger load factor was 70%, up 5.8 percentage points. The number of passengers carried was 661,200 up 10.3%.

Finnair's Tallinn-based subsidiary Aero AS, carried 73,300 passengers (+13.3%) on routes between Helsinki and the Baltic capitals and within Southern Finland. During May, Stockholm-based FlyNordic continued to gain market share and carried record-high 113,300 passengers (+10.9%). Aero and FlyNordic figures are respectively included in Finnair Group total figures.

Traffic performance of Finnair Group airlines altogether increased by 7.1% in May, while the capacity was up by 1.1%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 72.2% or 4 points higher than last year. All Finnair Group airlines altogether transported 753,400 passengers, which is 6.5% more than a year ago.

Departure punctuality of scheduled flights was 90.2% (based on a fifteen minute standard), 1.9 points lower than in May 2005. Including leisure flights departure punctuality was 89.5% (-1.8 p.p). Arrival punctuality of scheduled flights was 90.6% and that of all operations was 89.7%.

Scheduled traffic

In scheduled traffic (international + domestic) revenue passenger kilometres increased by 13.5%. The change in capacity was +4.2% while the passenger load factor was 70%, 5.8 percentage points higher than last year.

In scheduled international traffic, the total number of passengers was up by 13.1%. Capacity in ASKs was +5.6%, while RPKs increased by 14.7%.

In European scheduled traffic, ASKs decreased by 0.2%, and as RPKs increased by 12.4%, the passenger load factor was 67.8%, up 7.6 points from the previous year.

In North Atlantic scheduled traffic, capacity decreased by 9.7%. Change in RPKs was -4.4%, and the passenger load factor for May was 87.3%, 4.9 points higher than the previous year.

In Asian scheduled traffic, the capacity increase was 17.1%. Passenger traffic was up by 22.7% and the passenger load factor was 73.1%, 3.4 percentage points up.

Domestic scheduled traffic decreased by 0.6% on a capacity decrease of -8.6%. Passenger load factor increased by 4.3 percentage points to 53.9%.

Leisure traffic

ASKs for leisure traffic decreased in May by 11.4%, and RPKs decreased by 13.1%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 82.5%, 1.5 points lower than last year.

Cargo

Cargo traffic increased by 2.2% in terms of cargo tonnes carried. Growth in scheduled traffic was +4.2%. Increase in Asian traffic was +12.9%. Volume in European traffic decreased by 9%. In North-Atlantic traffic cargo volume increased by 8.6%. Cargo traffic carried on chartered cargo flights decreased by 8.5%. The cargo load factor was 57.8%. The cargo load factor in the Far Eastern traffic was 72.5% and in the North Atlantic traffic 77.2%.

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