Passenger load factor up 2.4 points in Finnair scheduled traffic for March 2006

In March 2006 Finnair scheduled traffic increased by 4.5% compared to March last year. Passenger load factor was 70%, up 2.4 percentage points. The number of passengers carried was 702 500, up 8.9%.

Finnair's Tallinn-based subsidiary Aero AS, carried 76 300 passengers (+16.1%) on routes between Helsinki and the Baltic capitals and within Southern Finland. During March, Stockholm-based FlyNordic continued to gain market share and carried 106,600 passengers (+15.4%). Aero and FlyNordic figures are included in Finnair Group's total figures.

Finnair group traffic, measured in passenger kilometers, increased by 0.4% in March, while the capacity was down by 0.8%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 74.9% or 0.9 points higher than last year. All Finnair Group airlines altogether transported 810,100 passengers, which is 6.3% more than a year ago.

Departure punctuality of scheduled flights was 81.7% (based on a fifteen minute standard), 5.1 points lower than in March 2005. Including leisure flights departure punctuality was 79.8% (-5.3 p.p). Arrival punctuality of scheduled flights was 82.2% and that of all operations was 79.9%.

Scheduled traffic

In scheduled traffic (international + domestic) revenue passenger kilometres increased by 4.5%. The change in capacity was + 0.9%. Passenger load factor was 70%, 2.4 percentage points higher than last year.

In scheduled international traffic, the total number of passengers was up by 9%. Capacity in ASKs was +0.5%, while RPKs increased by 4.2%.

In European scheduled traffic, ASKs increased by 1.7%, and as RPKs increased by 8%, the passenger load factor was 64.3%, up 3.7 points from the previous year.

In North Atlantic scheduled traffic, capacity decreased by - 38.9%. Change in RPKs was - 39.2%, and passenger load factor for March was 81.9%, 0.4 points lower than the previous year.

In Asian scheduled traffic, the capacity increase was 9.8%. Passenger traffic was up by 13.6% while passenger load factor was 78.6%, 2.6 percentage points up.

Domestic scheduled traffic increased by 6.5% on a capacity increase of 3.3%. Passenger load factor increased by 1.8 percentage points to 59.9%. 

Leisure traffic

ASKs for leisure traffic decreased in March by 4.9%, and RPKs decreased by 7.2%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 87.8%, - 2.3 points lower than last year.

Cargo

Cargo traffic increased by 6.4% in terms of cargo tonnes carried. Growth in scheduled traffic was +6.9%. Increase in Asian traffic was +15.9%. Volume in European traffic increased by 3%. In North Atlantic traffic cargo volume decreased by 16.4%. Cargo traffic carried on chartered cargo flights increased by 3.6%. The cargo load factor was 66%. The cargo load factor in the Far Eastern traffic was 83.5% and in the North Atlantic traffic 81.8%.

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