Finnair traffic declines, load factor excellent

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Finnair's scheduled traffic declined in July by nearly seven per cent and passenger numbers were around three per cent lower than in July 2008. Capacity was cut by nearly nine per cent, which meant that passenger load factor rose to 81 per cent.

“We have managed to adjust our capacity to correspond to lower demand, which has improved the passenger load factor. The price level is still regrettably poor, as has been the case throughout the early part of the year,” says Deputy CEO Lasse Heinonen.

Asian traffic declined by nearly 13 per cent and capacity contracted by 17 per cent, thereby increasing the load factor in Asian traffic to nearly 84 per cent.

In North American capacity, passenger volume and passenger kilometres all grew by 24 per cent. Passenger load factor remained at over 90 per cent. Growth of North American traffic is explained by an increase in flights to New York. In the summer season, Finnair is flying to New York ten times per week.

European traffic was 2.5 per cent lower and passenger volume declined by 1.2 per cent. Capacity was reduced by 2.2 per cent. Passenger load factor fell to slightly over 77 per cent.

Domestic traffic declined by 4.5 per cent. Capacity was reduced domestically by nearly four per cent and load factor was at the previous year's level of 63.5 per cent.

In Leisure Flights, passenger volume in July was more than 23 per cent lower than a year earlier. Revenue passenger kilometres declined by nearly 18 per cent. Capacity was reduced by more than 13 per cent, but load factor declined by 4.5 per cent to 86 per cent.

Of Finnair's flights, 89.2 per cent arrived on schedule, which represents an improvement of 6.7 percentage points from last year. Scheduled traffic's punctuality percentage rose from July last year by 6.1 percentage points to 90.6 per cent.

Finnair traffic
Finnair traffic altogether decreased by 8.7%, measured in revenue passenger kilometres. Capacity decreased by 9.5%. Passenger load factor was 0.8 percentage points higher than year before, 81.8%. Number of passengers carried decreased by 6.2% and was 670 981.

Scheduled traffic
Scheduled traffic decreased by 6.6%, measured in revenue passenger kilometres. Capacity decreased by 8.7%. Passenger load factor was 1.9 percentage points higher than year before, 81.0%. Number of passengers carried decreased by 2.7% and was 574 446.

Scheduled international traffic, decreased by 6.6%, measured in revenue passenger kilometres. Capacity decreased by 8.9%. Passenger load factor was 2.0 percentage points higher than year before, 81.5%. Number of passengers carried decreased by 3.7% and was 512 167.

European scheduled traffic, decreased by 2.5%, measured in revenue passenger kilometres. Capacity decreased by 2.2%. Passenger load factor was 0.2 percentage points lower than year before, 77.1%. Number of passengers carried decreased by 1.2% and was 385 843.

North Atlantic scheduled traffic increased by 24.0%, measured in revenue passenger kilometres. Capacity increased by 24.0%. Passenger load factor was same than year before, 90.1%. Number of passengers carried increased by 24.0% and was 19 539.

Asian scheduled traffic decreased by 12.8%, measured in revenue passenger kilometres. Capacity decreased by 16.6%. Passenger load factor was 3.7 percentage points higher than year before, 83.6%. Number of passengers carried decreased by 15.0% and was 106 785.

Domestic scheduled traffic decreased by 4.3%, measured in revenue passenger kilometres. Capacity decreased by 3.8%. Passenger load factor was 0.4 percentage points lower than year before, 63.5%. Number of passengers carried increased by 7.0% and was 62 279.

Leisure traffic
Leisure traffic decreased by 17.8%, measured in revenue passenger kilometres. Capacity decreased by 13.4%. Passenger load factor was 4.5 percentage points lower than year before, 86.1%. Number of passengers carried decreased by 23.1% and was 96 535.

Cargo
Cargo traffic decreased by 12.9% in terms of cargo tonnes carried.

Decrease in scheduled traffic was 14.2%. Cargo traffic decreased by 15.6% in Asian traffic, decreased by 3.4% in European traffic and decreased by 30.7% in North-Atlantic traffic.

Cargo traffic carried on chartered cargo flights increased by 13.2%. The cargo load factor in the Far Eastern traffic was 72.5% and in the North Atlantic traffic 37.0%.

Finnair press release 6.08.2009