Finnair Cargo prepares for strong Asian Traffic Growth

Finnair Group subsidiary Finnair Cargo Oy is preparing for strong Asian traffic growth by reorganising its operations. The goal is to increase cargo capacity at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport.

“We need a great deal more space for the needs of our growing Asian traffic. Our long-haul fleet is expanding strongly in the coming years, so we estimate cargo loads to double in less than ten years. In response to this, our goal is to increase cargo terminal capacity from the current level,” said Finnair Cargo Oy Managing Director Antero Lahtinen.

“In order to sensibly reorganise our activities we are separating cargo terminal and cargo company business functions from each other. The growing cargo loads will also mean more jobs in the future.”

In 2006 Finnair carried 94 million kilos of air freight. Finnair’s cargo terminal handled 125 million kilos of cargo last year. The cargo terminal operations will be formed into a separate Finnair Group subsidiary called Finnair Cargo Terminal Operations Oy. 300 current Finnair Cargo employees will transfer to the new company. Finnair Cargo Oy will focus on cargo transport company operations and will have a staff of about 100, over half of which work outside Finland.

“Cargo’s local terminal operations and, on the other hand, the global air freight operations and competition environment differ from each other greatly. With the arrangement we can improve financial transparency in accordance with Finnair Group’s strategy. At the same time this enables us to develop the companies in a more independent direction,” Lahtinen said.

Finnair Cargo Oy is a cargo traffic company which transports cargo mostly in the cargo holds of Finnair scheduled traffic passenger aircraft, but also uses leased cargo aircraft capacity. A significant proportion of Finnair’s cargo traffic takes place between Asia and Europe.

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