Lower Load Factors for Finnair in May 2008

In May 2008, Finnair scheduled traffic increased by 7% compared to May last year. Due to weaker than expected growth in demand, the number of passengers carried on scheduled flights decreased by 3.1% to 554,939. The passenger load factor in scheduled passenger traffic was 62.4%, 8 percentage points lower than last year.

Finnair’s Asian traffic grew 18.5% compared to May 2007. Capacity was up by 38.3% leading to 62.6% load factor, 10.5 points lower than last year. The number of passengers carried on Finnair’s Asian flights in May was 87,402, which is 15.1% more than a year ago. RPKs in European traffic decreased by 4.8% and passenger load factor decreased by 6.7 percentage points to 61.7%.

Finnair’s passenger load factor suffered from the levelling off of demand growth in China and India. Demand from Europe to China is decreasing due to the ambiguity caused by the earthquakes in China. From China travel has decreased because of restrictions on traveling. Indian traffic is emphasized on demand from Europe to India. The more moderate growth in demand in China and India has not managed to offset the strong increase in long-haul capacity. Weakened demand in Asian traffic also reflects on load factors in European traffic.

Finnair traffic, measured in passenger kilometers, increased by 6.3% in May, while the capacity was up by 18.1%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 65% or 7.3 points lower than last year. Leisure flights’ passenger load factor decreased by 0.8 percentage points to 81.1% compared to the previous year. Finnair transported altogether 644,181 passengers, which is 2.4% less than a year ago.

Arrival punctuality of scheduled flights was 86.9% (based on a fifteen minute standard), 0.8 points lower than in January 2006. Including leisure flights arrival punctuality was 85.2% (0.4 p.p).

Scheduled Traffic

In scheduled traffic (international + domestic) revenue passenger kilometres increased by 7%. The change in capacity was 20.8%, while the passenger load factor was 62.4%, 8 percentage points lower than last year.

In scheduled international traffic, the total number of passengers was up by 0.8%. Capacity in ASKs was 21.8%, while RPKs increased by 8%.

In European scheduled traffic, ASKs increased by 5.5%, and as RPKs decreased by 4.8%, the passenger load factor was 61.7%, down 6.7 points from previous year.

In North Atlantic scheduled traffic, capacity increased by 19.2%. Change in RPKs was 17.7%, and the passenger load factor for May was 78.2%, 1 point lower than the previous year.

In Asian scheduled traffic, capacity increase was 38.3%. Passenger traffic was up by 18.5% while the passenger load factor was 62.6%, 10.5 percentage points down.

Domestic scheduled traffic decreased by 11.4% on a capacity decrease of 5.2%. The passenger load factor decreased by 9.3 percentage points to 49.6%.

Leisure Traffic

ASKs for leisure traffic increased in May by 3.7%, and RPKs increased by 2.8%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 81.1%, 0.8 points lower than last year.

Cargo

Cargo traffic increased by 13.2% in terms of cargo tonnes carried. Growth in scheduled traffic was 17.9%. Increase in Asian traffic was 24%. Volume in European traffic increased by 4.2%. In North-Atlantic traffic cargo volume increased by 20.3%. Cargo traffic carried on chartered cargo flights decreased by 42.5%. The cargo load factor in the Far Eastern traffic was 71.3% and in the North Atlantic traffic 67.1%.

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