Finnair Scheduled Traffic Grows by 22.1% in September 2007

In September 2007, Finnair scheduled traffic increased by 22.1% compared to the same month last year. The main driver for the growth has been the company's Asian traffic, which grew by 28.8%. Demand increased also on European routes, where the number of revenue passenger kilometers was 23.3% higher than a year before. The passenger load factor was 73.9%, down 0.8 percentage points. The passenger load factor on European flights decreased 3.1 percentage points, mainly due to added capacity on longer routes to Southern European destinations. The number of passengers carried was 632,864 up 9.2%.

During July-September, unit revenue (euro cent/RPK) decreased by 6.5% in scheduled traffic, mainly due to strong capacity increase in long-haul traffic as well as on longer routes in European traffic. During the same period unit costs fell more than the unit revenues.

Finnair total traffic, measured in passenger kilometers, increased by 16.8% in September, while the capacity was up by 18.6%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 75% or 1.1 points lower than last year. All Finnair Group airlines altogether transported 738,714 passengers, which is 7.2% more than a year ago.

Finnair's Tallinn-based subsidiary Aero AS, carried 27,556 passengers (- 55%) on routes between Helsinki and the Baltic capitals and within Southern Finland. Aero figures are included in Finnair Group total figures. At the end of June, Finnair sold its Stockholm-based subsidiary airline FlyNordic and its traffic performance is no longer reported as part of Finnair Group statistics. For better comparison, equivalent figures for last year have been adjusted accordingly.

Arrival punctuality of scheduled flights was 81.9% (based on a fifteen minute standard), 6.5 points lower than in January 2006. Including leisure flights arrival punctuality was 80.3% (-7 p.p).

Scheduled Traffic

In scheduled traffic (international + domestic) revenue passenger kilometres increased by 22.1%. The change in capacity was 23.5%. Passenger load factor was 73.9%, 0.8 percentage points lower than last year.

In scheduled international traffic, the total number of passengers was up by 20.1%. Capacity in ASKs was 27.4%, while RPKs increased by 24.6%.

In European scheduled traffic, ASKs increased by 29%, and as RPKs increased by 23.3%, the passenger load factor was 67.2%, down 3.1 points from previous year.

In North Atlantic scheduled traffic, capacity decreased by 0.7%. Change in RPKs was 4.5%, and passenger load factor for September was 93%, 4.6 points higher than previous year.

The Asian scheduled traffic capacity increase was 30.3%. The passenger traffic was up by 28.8% while the passenger load factor was 78.6%, 0.9 percentage points down.

Domestic scheduled traffic decreased by 11.5% on a capacity decrease of 15.7%. Passenger load factor increased by 2.8 percentage points to 59.6%.

Leisure Traffic

ASKs for leisure traffic decreased in September by 2.4%, and RPKs decreased by 3.9%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 80.8%, 1.3 points lower than last year.

Cargo

Cargo traffic increased by 6.5% in terms of cargo tonnes carried. Growth in scheduled traffic was 15.8%. Increase in Asian traffic was 23.3%. Volume in European traffic increased by 8.3%. In North-Atlantic traffic cargo volume increased by 2.7%. Cargo traffic carried on chartered cargo flights decreased by 66.5%. The cargo load factor was 65.7%. The cargo load factor in the Asian traffic was 74.2% and in the North Atlantic traffic 80.6%.

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