Finnair growth strongest in Asia and Scandinavia

Finnair growth has been strongest in its strategic focus areas; in Asian traffic and in the Swedish subsidiary flynordic operations in Scandinavia. In November, Asian traffic increased by 15.7%. flynordic, for its part, passed the 80 000 passengers per month mark. Its passenger numbers have thus doubled in less than a year.

Finnair traffic, measured in passenger kilometers, increased by 8.2% in November, while the capacity was up by 8.5%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 68.7%, 0.1 points lower than last year. All Finnair Group airlines altogether transported 648,400 passengers, which is 12.1% more than a year ago.

Finnair scheduled traffic increased by 6.6% compared to November last year. Passenger load factor was 61.6%, down 0.5 percentage points. Number of passengers carried was 548,700, up 12.7%.

In November, departure punctuality of scheduled flights was 88.7% (based on a fifteen minute standard), 1.7 points lower than in November 2003. Temporary deterioration was caused by an air traffic control system and procedures newly implemented by the civil aviation authorities. Including leisure flights departure punctuality was 87.0% (-1.6 p.p). Arrival punctuality of scheduled flights was 88.5% and that of all operations was 86.1%.

Finnair's Tallinn-based subsidiary Aero AS, carried 52,500 passengers on its routes in the Baltic Sea rim area. During November, Stockholm-based flynordic (former Nordic Airlink) continued to gain market share and carried a record 83,400 passengers on its Scandinavian routes. Aero and flynordic figures are respectively included in Finnair Group total figures.

Scheduled traffic

- In scheduled traffic (international + domestic) revenue passenger kilometres increased by 6.6%. The change in capacity was +7.5%. Passenger load factor was 61.6%, 0.5 percentage points lower than last year.

- In scheduled international traffic, total number of passengers was up by 28.7%, partly affected by adding flynordic figures. Capacity in ASKs was +8.6%, while RPKs increased by 9.0%.

- In European scheduled traffic, ASKs increased by 19.9%, and as RPKs increased by 14.8%, the passenger load factor was 51.8%, down 2.3 points from previous year.

- In North Atlantic scheduled traffic, capacity decreased by 38.0% due to changing JFK frequency from 7 to 5 flights a week, and as Miami was served in 2003 twice a week during November. Change in RPKs was -33.8%, and passenger load factor for November was 71.0%, 4.6 points higher than previous year.

- In Asian scheduled traffic, capacity increase was 8.9% mainly due to adding frequencies to Shanghai and Osaka since beginning of June. The passenger traffic was up by 15.7%. Passenger load factor was 79.6%, 4.7 percentage points up.

- Domestic scheduled traffic decreased by 9.3% on a capacity increase of 1.3%. Passenger load factor declined by 5.7 percentage points to 48.9%.

Leisure traffic

ASKs for leisure traffic increased in November by 10.8%, and RPKs increased by 11.1%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 85.6%, 0.3 points higher than last year.

Cargo

Cargo traffic increased by 0.8% in terms of cargo tonnes carried. Growth in scheduled traffic was -5.6%. Increase in Asian traffic was 1.2%. Volume in European traffic decreased by 10.5%. In North-Atlantic traffic cargo volume decreased by 20.4%. Cargo traffic carried on chartered cargo flights increased by 61.2%. The cargo load factor was 66.1%. The cargo load factor in the Far Eastern traffic was 84.8% and in the North Atlantic traffic 86.2%.

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