Passenger load factor up 3.5 points in Finnair scheduled traffic for October 2005

Finnair scheduled traffic increased by 12.6% in October 2005 compared to the same month last year. Passenger load factor was 68%, up 3.5 percentage points, while the number of passengers carried was 612 200, up 7.5%.

Finnair's Tallinn-based subsidiary Aero AS, carried 70 600 passengers (+524.6%) on routes between Helsinki and the Baltic capitals and within Southern Finland. During October, Stockholm-based FlyNordic continued to gain market share and carried 111,500 passengers (+51.7%). Aero and FlyNordic figures are included in Finnair Group's total figures.

Finnair total traffic, measured in passenger kilometers, increased by 6.6% in October, while the capacity was up by 3.4%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 72% or 2.2 points higher than last year. All Finnair Group airlines together transported 747 900 passengers, which is 5.2% more than a year ago.

Departure punctuality of scheduled flights was 88.1% (based on a fifteen minute standard), 1 point lower than in October 2004. Including leisure flights departure punctuality was 86.7% (-1.2 points). Arrival punctuality of scheduled flights was 87.5% and that of all operations was 85.8%.

Scheduled traffic

In scheduled traffic (international + domestic) revenue passenger kilometres increased by 12.6%. The change in capacity was + 6.9%, and the passenger load factor was 68%, 3.5 percentage points higher than last year.

In scheduled international traffic, the total number of passengers was up by 13.8%. Capacity in ASKs was + 8.5%, while RPKs increased by 14.5%.

In European scheduled traffic, ASKs increased by 2.7%, and as RPKs increased by 14.7%, the passenger load factor was 61.1%, up 6.4 points from previous year.

In North Atlantic scheduled traffic, capacity decreased by 4.5%. Change in RPKs was + 3.7%, and passenger load factor for October was 86.8%, 6.9 points higher than previous year.

In Asian scheduled traffic, the capacity increase was 18.9%. Passenger traffic was up by 16.2%, while the passenger load factor was 78.6%, 1.8 percentage points down.

Domestic scheduled traffic decreased by 5.8% on a capacity decrease of 5.1%. Passenger load factor decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 50.2%.

Leisure traffic

ASKs for leisure traffic decreased in October by 5.2%, and RPKs decreased by 4.7%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 82.9%, 0.4 points higher than last year.

Cargo

Finnair's cargo traffic increased by 4.8% in terms of cargo tonnes carried. The growth in scheduled traffic was +7.6%, the increase in Asian traffic was +19.3% and volume in European traffic increased by 0.8%. In North-Atlantic traffic cargo volume decreased by 14.8%, while cargo traffic carried on chartered cargo flights decreased by 9.3%. The cargo load factor was 71.4%, with the cargo load factor in Far Eastern traffic 83.8% and in the North Atlantic traffic 78%.

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