Finnair passes Eight Million Milestone in Passenger Numbers

The number of Finnair passengers exceeded eight million in November 2006. The Finnair Group airlines together will carry nearly nine million passengers this year.

Finnair scheduled traffic increased by 6.9% compared to November last year, while the passenger load factor was 65%, up 1.4 percentage points. The number of passengers carried was 585,300, which is on the same level as last year.

Finnair Group traffic, measured in passenger kilometers, increased by 2.3% in November, while the capacity was up by 1.9%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 69.2% or 0.3 points higher than last year. All Finnair Group airlines altogether transported 667,800 passengers, which is 1.3% less than a year ago.

Finnair's Tallinn-based subsidiary Aero AS, carried 55,600 passengers (-20.3%) on routes between Helsinki and the Baltic capitals and within Southern Finland. Some of the routes have been operated with the parent company’s Embraer fleet. During November, Stockholm-based FlyNordic carried 84,700 passengers (-22.3%). The decrease in passenger numbers is due to capacity cuts, which have improved the profitability of the company. Aero and FlyNordic figures are included in the Finnair Group total figures.

Arrival punctuality of scheduled flights was 78.1% (based on a fifteen minute standard), 8.7 points lower than in November 2005. Including leisure flights arrival punctuality was 81.9% (-7.1 p.p).

Scheduled traffic

In scheduled traffic (international + domestic) revenue passenger kilometres increased by 6.9%. The change in capacity was + 4.5%. Passenger load factor was 65%, 1.4 percentage points higher than last year.

In scheduled international traffic, the total number of passengers was up by 1.7%. Capacity in ASKs was +6.6%, while RPKs increased by 8%.

In European scheduled traffic, ASKs decreased by 2.6%, and as RPKs increased by 3.4%, the passenger load factor was 59.8%, up 3.4 points from the previous year.

In North Atlantic scheduled traffic, capacity increased by 1.1%. Change in RPKs was -16.1%, and the passenger load factor for November was 70.5%, 14.4 points lower than previous year.

In Asian scheduled traffic, capacity increase was 18.3%. The passenger traffic was up by 16.5%. Passenger load factor was 72%, 1.1 percentage points down.

Domestic scheduled traffic decreased by 4% on a capacity decrease of 10.6%. Passenger load factor increased by 3.7 percentage points to 54.1%.

Leisure traffic

ASKs for leisure traffic decreased in November by 5.4%, and RPKs decreased by 7.3%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 81.9%, 1.7 points lower than last year.

Cargo

Cargo traffic increased by 2.7% in terms of cargo tonnes carried. Growth in scheduled traffic was +2.5%. Increase in Asian traffic was +8.7%. Volume in European traffic decreased by 11.4%. In North-Atlantic traffic cargo volume increased by 20.4%. Cargo traffic carried on chartered cargo flights increased by 4.1%. The cargo load factor was 52.2%. The cargo load factor in the Far Eastern traffic was 63.4% and in the North Atlantic traffic 92.1%.

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