13.3% Growth for Finnair Scheduled Traffic in 2006

In 2006, Finnair scheduled traffic grew 13.3% compared to the year before. The strongest growth took place in Asian traffic with 27.3%, while the number of passengers on the Asian routes grew up to nearly 900,000. The entire Finnair Group carried last year about 8.8 million passengers, out of which 7.5 million passengers were on scheduled flights. Passenger load factor in the whole system grew by 2.5 percentage points and in scheduled traffic 3.9 percentage points.

Unit revenues, based on revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), on the fourth quarter remained on the previous year’s level, but the unit revenue for the whole year 2006 descended by 3%. Development of the average yield could not set aside increased cost, of which fuel costs were the most remarkable.

In December 2006, Finnair scheduled traffic increased by 14.3% compared to December last year. The passenger load factor was 68.6%, up 1.4 percentage points while the number of passengers carried was 569,171, up 1.1%.

Finnair traffic, measured in passenger kilometers, increased by 9.1% in December, while the capacity was up by 7.3%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 75% or 1.2 points higher than last year. All Finnair Group airlines altogether transported 659,886 passengers, which is 0.7% more than a year ago.

Finnair's Tallinn-based subsidiary Aero AS, carried 33,694 passengers (-41.9%) on routes between Helsinki and the Baltic capitals and within Southern Finland. The full year passenger figure was 727,900 (-4%). During December, Stockholm-based FlyNordic carried 79,092 passengers (-17.1%). The full year passenger figure was 727,900 (+0.7%). Aero and FlyNordic figures are included in Finnair Group total figures.

Arrival punctuality of scheduled flights was 78.4% (based on a fifteen minute standard), 1.5 points lower than in December 2005. Including leisure flights arrival punctuality was 76.2% (-1.1 p.p).

Scheduled traffic

In scheduled traffic (international + domestic) revenue passenger kilometres increased by 14.3%. The change in capacity was +12%, while the passenger load factor was 68.6%, 1.4 percentage points higher than last year.

In scheduled international traffic, the total number of passengers was up by 5.7%. Capacity in ASKs was +15.3%, while RPKs increased by 16.9%.

In European scheduled traffic, ASKs increased by 0.4%, and as RPKs increased by 5.5%, the passenger load factor was 64.6%, up 3.1 points from previous year.

In North Atlantic scheduled traffic, capacity decreased by 8.3%. Change in RPKs was -7.4%, and passenger load factor for December was 76.1%, 0.8 points higher than previous year.

In Asian scheduled traffic, the capacity increase was 34%. The passenger traffic was up by 29.8% while the passenger load factor was 72.6%, 2.3 percentage points down.

Domestic scheduled traffic decreased by 8.2% on a capacity decrease of 12.7%. Passenger load factor increased by 3 percentage points to 60.4%.

Leisure traffic

ASKs for leisure traffic decreased in December by 4%, and RPKs decreased by 0.4%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 93.1%, 3.4 points higher than last year.

Cargo

Cargo traffic increased by 0.8% in terms of cargo tonnes carried. Growth in scheduled traffic was +0.1%. Increase in Asian traffic was +9.9%. Volume in European traffic decreased by 12.8%. In North-Atlantic traffic cargo volume decreased by 7.2%. Cargo traffic carried on chartered cargo flights increased by 5%. The cargo load factor was 44.8%. The cargo load factor in the Far Eastern traffic was 51.9% and in the North Atlantic traffic 78.8%.

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