Finnair's Asian traffic up by a third

Demand in Finnair's scheduled passenger traffic increased by 7.8% in August 2003. Strongest growth took place in the Asian traffic, which was up by a third compared to August 2002. Passenger load factor on the Asian flights increased nearly two percentage points.

In August 2003 Finnair carried a total of 588,800 passengers, which is 4.7% less than year before. 478,200 of the passengers were carried in scheduled traffic (-4.6%) and 110,700 in leisure traffic (-5.1%). The total passenger traffic (RPK's) increased by 1.0%, while the capacity (ASK) was up by 1.1%, resulting in a passenger load factor (including leisure flights) of 72.8%, 0.1 points lower than last year.

Cumulative January-August traffic (RPK) was 2.6% below 2002 level on a capacity increase of 3.1%. Passenger load factor was 68.9% (-4.0%-points). Total number of passengers carried was 4,476,300 (-6.1%).

Departure punctuality of scheduled flights was 94.2% (based on a fifteen minute standard), 0.5%-points lower than in August 2002. Including leisure flights departure punctuality was 93.5% (-0.1 p.u).

As from January 2003 the traffic performance report also includes the figures of Finnair's associated company Aero Airlines AS, to which Finnair handed over most of its Helsinki-Tallinn operations in June 1st 2002. In August Aero carried 7,200 passengers (-10.4%) with a PLF of 36.5%.

Scheduled traffic

* In scheduled traffic (international + domestic) revenue passenger kilometers increased by 7.8%. The change in capacity was +7.9%. Passenger load factor was 68.3%, same than year before.

* In scheduled international traffic, premium traffic decreased by 15.7%, while the total number of passengers was down by 0.7%. Capacity in ASKs was +9.7%, while RPKs increased by 10.2%.

In European scheduled traffic, ASKs increased by 1.7%, and as RPKs increased by 1.6%, the passenger load factor was 60.1%, down 0.1 points from previous year.

* In North Atlantic scheduled traffic, capacity decreased by 0.1%. Change in RPKs was -10.9%, and passenger load factor for August was 83.0%, 10.1 p.u. lower than previous year. Premium traffic decreased by 29.0%.

* In Far East scheduled traffic, capacity increase was 31.5%. The passenger traffic was up by 34.3%. Passenger load factor was 85.2%, 1.8 percentage units up. The number of premium passengers increased by 42.1%.

* Domestic scheduled traffic decreased by 11.7% on a capacity decrease of 3.3%. Passenger load factor decreased by 4.7 p.u. to 49.3%.

Leisure traffic

* ASKs for leisure traffic decreased in August by 17.8%, and RPKs decreased by 14.1%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 89.5%, 3.9 points better than last year.

Cargo

* Cargo and mail tonnes carried decreased by 10.7%. The decrease was due to cancellations of chartered cargo flights in August. In scheduled traffic, cargo and mail volumes increased by 3.5%. In Asian traffic a growth of 16.4% was reached while in North American scheduled traffic the volumes grew by 8.1%. In European scheduled traffic the volume decrease was of 7.0%.