Finnair Reports January 2010 Traffic

Passenger demand in Finnair's scheduled flights grew in January 2010 by just under 1% and capacity was cut by just over 3%. The passenger load factor of scheduled flights rose by three percentage points to more than 74%. A total of 0.5 million passengers travelled on scheduled flights, just over 1% fewer than in January last year.

"Passenger demand in scheduled traffic has risen to a modest extent, but the average price is still slightly down from last year. Cargo demand is strengthening, particularly in Asian traffic and the decline in price level has come to a halt," said Finnair's SVP Communications Christer Haglund.

Growth in scheduled traffic is derived mainly from Asian and European traffic. Measured in passenger kilometres, both grew by 2%compared with the previous January. North American traffic declined by 4%. The growth in business class demand, which began in December, also continued in January.

Due to changes in network structure, Finnair cut its domestic traffic by 14% from the previous year, which led to an improvement in load factor by a couple of percentage points to 55%.

Leisure traffic declined in January by nearly 30%. Load factors, however, were kept at over 93% due to a capacity cut of nearly a third.

The amount of cargo carried grew by more than 26% compared with the previous January. Growth is evident particularly in Asian traffic, where the amount of cargo carried grew by more than 40%.

January's punctuality figures were burdened by exceptionally demanding winter conditions throughout Europe. Of Finnair's flights, 61% arrived on schedule in January, which was more than 22 percentage points less than in the same period last year. The punctuality of traffic overall fell by nearly 21 percentage points and was slightly over 59%.

See recent travel news from: Travel News Asia, Finnair, January 2010