FINNAIR'S SCHEDULED PASSENGER TRAFFIC GROWS
FINNAIR OYJ STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE APRIL 7, 2010 AT 09:00
Finnair's traffic is picking up. Growth is coming from scheduled traffic and
particularly from outside Finland. Scheduled traffic grew in March by 19 per
cent compared with March last year. The passenger load factor of scheduled
flights rose by more than 12 percentage points. In January-March the average
yield per passenger kilometre in scheduled traffic was 7 per cent lower than
last year.
"The focus of business travel demand has shifted to outside of Finland.
Long-haul traffic business class sales in particular are clearly better than
before. The price level of flight tickets is still low, however," says Finnair's
SVP Communications Christer Haglund.
Finnair traffic overall only grew by a little less than 2 per cent, because
leisure flight demand has declined by more than 30 per cent. Scheduled flights
carried 600,000 passengers, which is 10 per cent more than a year earlier. The
number of passengers carried on all traffic in March was nearly 700,000.
Asian traffic grew in March by 27 per cent. A total of 114,000 passengers
travelled on Asian flights. The load factor in Asia traffic was also good in
March, at nearly 87 per cent. The passenger load factor for all traffic was 80
per cent.
"Due to successful capacity management, Finnair's aircraft are flying fuller
than before. Improving the load factor by 12 percentage points is exceptional,"
explains Haglund.
North American traffic grew by nearly 25 per cent and European traffic by 11 per
cent. The load factor on North American flights was 85 per cent and in European
traffic 70 per cent.
In domestic traffic, Finnair has reduced its capacity according to plan. In
March domestic traffic declined by more than 4 per cent and capacity was cut by
12 per cent.
Leisure traffic declined in March by 31 per cent, but the load factor was kept
at 89 per cent through 33 per cent capacity cuts.
The amount of cargo carried on scheduled flights grew in March by 24 per cent.
On Asian flights, cargo carried was 30 per cent more than last year.
Of Finnair's scheduled flights in March, nearly 84 per cent arrived on schedule,
which is slightly more than 7 percentage points less than last year. The
punctuality of traffic overall declined by 6 percentage points to 82 per cent.
