Finnair's Asian traffic up by 23.9% in February 2006

Finnair Asian traffic grew by 23.9% and the passenger load factor by 2.7 percentage points in February 2006. Measured in passenger kilometers, Asian traffic has surpassed European traffic. The amount of cargo on Asian routes increased by 22%. Finnair Scheduled Passenger Traffic in total increased by 7.3% year on year, while the passenger load factor in Scheduled Traffic was 67.2% or 2.3 points higher than February last year. The number of passengers was 574,000, which is 3.7% more than a year ago.

With Leisure Traffic included, Finnair’s demand grew by 4.1% and capacity by 1.7% in February. The passenger load factor was thus 1.7 points higher than last year equaling 74.6%. The group airlines transported a total of 670,000 passengers which is 2.3% more than a year ago.

Finnair's Tallinn-based subsidiary Aero AS, carried 63 000 passengers (+2.5%) on routes between Helsinki and the Baltic capitals and within Southern Finland. During February, Stockholm-based FlyNordic carried 90,400 passengers (+4.9%). Aero and FlyNordic figures are included in Finnair Group total figures.

Departure punctuality of scheduled flights was 83.5% (based on a fifteen minute standard), 1.8 points lower than in February 2005. Including leisure flights departure punctuality was 81.9% (-2.0 p.p). Arrival punctuality of scheduled flights was 83.1% and that of all operations was 80.7%. 

Scheduled traffic

In scheduled traffic (international + domestic) revenue passenger kilometres increased by 7.3%. The change in capacity was + 3.6%. Passenger load factor was 67.2%, 2.3 percentage points higher than last year.

In scheduled international traffic the total number of passengers was up by 6.7%. Capacity in ASKs was + 4.4%, while RPKs increased by 8.6%.

In European scheduled traffic, ASKs increased by 2.6%, and as RPKs increased by 7%, the passenger load factor was 60.6%, up 2.5 points from previous year.

In North Atlantic scheduled traffic, capacity decreased by 39.5% because in February 2005 Miami was still in the Finnair route network. In addition, changes have been made in the frequency of New York flights. Change in RPKs was - 40.4%, and passenger load factor for February was 70.8%, 1.0 point lower than the previous year. 

In Asian scheduled traffic, capacity increase was 19.6% because of the Guangzhou route which opened in September last year and additional frequencies to Shanghai and Bangkok . The passenger traffic was up by 23.9%. Passenger load factor was 78.2%, 2.7 percentage points up.

 Domestic scheduled traffic decreased by 2.1% on a capacity decrease of 1.1%. Passenger load factor decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 55.5%.

Leisure traffic

ASKs for leisure traffic decreased in February by 3.1%, and RPKs decreased by 1.4%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 94%, 1.6 points higher than last year.

Cargo

Cargo traffic remained at last year’s level in terms of cargo tonnes carried. Growth in scheduled traffic was +5.4%. Increase in Asian traffic was +22%. Volume in European traffic decreased by 3%. In North-Atlantic traffic, cargo volume decreased by 21.4%. Cargo traffic carried on chartered cargo flights decreased by 27.1%. The cargo load factor was 56.6%. The cargo load factor in Asian traffic was 73.9% and in North Atlantic traffic 85.6%.

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