Number of Finnair passengers increased by 17.6% in March 2004

The number of Finnair passengers in March 2004 increased 17.6 %. During the month, Finnair Group airlines transported 758 700 passengers. In scheduled traffic demand (RPK's = revenue passenger kilometers) increased by 28.4%. Passenger load factor was 64.0%, 2.7 percentage points higher than in March 2003.

The total traffic (RPK's), summing up both scheduled and leisure traffic, increased by 14.4%, while the capacity (ASK) was up by 13.2%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 71.6%, 0.8 points higher than last year.

Departure punctuality of scheduled flights was 89.7% (based on a fifteen minute standard), 4.1 %-points lower than in March 2003. Including leisure flights departure punctuality was 88.9% (-3.8 p.p).

Finnair's subsidiary Aero Airlines AS, operating Tallinn-Helsinki route, carried 14,300 passengers (+27.9%). During March, Nordic Airlink carried 50,600 passengers on its Stockholm-based routes to Oslo, Copenhagen, Gothenburg and Lulea.

Scheduled traffic

Scheduled traffic (international + domestic) RPK's increased by 28.4%. The change in capacity was +22.9%. The passenger load factor was 64.0%, 2.7 percentage points higher than last year.

In scheduled international traffic, the total number of passengers was up by 32.1%, partly affected by adding Nordic Airlink figures. Capacity in ASKs was +27.5%, while RPKs increased by 32.0%.

For European scheduled traffic, ASKs increased by 20.5%, and as RPKs increased by 18.2%, the passenger load factor was 54.6%, down 1.0 point from 2003.

North Atlantic scheduled traffic capacity increased by 22.1%, partly due to introduction of Miami flights on 23rd of October 2003. Change in RPKs was +43.3%, and passenger load factor for March was 83.8%, 12.4 points higher than the previous year.

The Asian scheduled traffic capacity increase was 42.8% due to the addition of Shanghai flights in September 2003, and Osaka flights in June 2003. The passenger traffic was up by 48.4%. Passenger load factor was 74.0%, 2.8 percentage points up. Last years figures were slightly weakened by the Iraq war and SARS.

Domestic scheduled traffic increased by 13.0% on a capacity increase of 4.8%. Passenger load factor increased by 4.5 percentage points to 61.8%.

Leisure traffic

ASKs for leisure traffic decreased in March by 5.9%, and RPKs decreased by 4.4%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 91.2%, 1.4 points higher than last year.

Cargo

Cargo traffic increased by 6.9% in terms of cargo tonnes carried. Growth in scheduled traffic was +14.7%. Increase in Asian traffic was 37.5%. Volume in European traffic decreased by 0.4%. In North-Atlantic traffic cargo volume increased by 4.8%. Cargo traffic carried on chartered cargo flights decreased 22.1% due to capacity cuts. The new key ratio cargo load factor including all traffic categories was 67.0%. The cargo load factor in the Far Eastern traffic was 91.4% and in the North Atlantic traffic 73.7%.