Finnair's traffic grew in 2008 by 10 per cent compared with the previous year.
Asian traffic alone grew by 16.5 per cent.
“Finnair's Asian flights carried a total of 1.3 million passengers last year, a
new record. Our successful Asian strategy will be an essential part of our
scheduled traffic also in the future,” says Finnair's SVP Communications
Christer Haglund.
In December, Asian traffic demand grew six per cent, while capacity was cut by
nearly four per cent. This year scheduled traffic capacity is expected to be
good two per cent less than last year. Asian traffic capacity will fall by the
same amount, because the present Boeing MD-11 long-haul aircraft will be
replaced with new Airbus A330 aircraft and the number of aircraft will not
increase.
In December, scheduled traffic growth was more than five per cent. North
American traffic grew by 29 per cent, influenced to a large extent by the
addition of one flight per week to New York. North American traffic accounts for
around six per cent of scheduled traffic's revenue passenger kilometres. In
domestic traffic, capacity fell last year by six per cent, mainly as a result of
turbo-prop traffic being discontinued a year ago. This contributed to the fact
that in December and the whole of last year domestic traffic passenger
kilometres fell by nearly nine per cent. Leisure traffic grew by 12 per cent
last November, and in December by 13 per cent. Finnair traffic grew by nearly
eight per cent in December compared with the previous year.
Load factors rose compared with December last year in Asian and North American
traffic, but fell in European and domestic traffic as well as in leisure
traffic.
Finnair scheduled traffic average revenue per passenger kilometre fell last year
by more than four per cent and in the final quarter by 12 per cent.
“The price level of flight tickets has fallen significantly. Flying is now
cheaper than ever before. A fall-off in business travel towards the end of the
year also weakened average revenues,” explains Haglund.
The number of cargo kilos carried by Finnair declined in December by more than
22 per cent, which reflects a weakening of the global cargo market towards the
end of the year. Last year, Finnair carried a total of more than one hundred
million kilos of cargo, which is 3.5 per cent more than a year earlier.
Of Finnair's flights, 77.1 per cent arrived on schedule in December, which
represents an improvement of 7.8 percentage points from last year. Finnair is
one of Europe's most punctual network airlines. Scheduled traffic's punctuality
percentage rose from December last year by 7.8 percentage points to 80.7 per
cent.
Finnair traffic in December
Finnair traffic altogether increased by 7.8%, measured in revenue passenger
kilometres. Capacity increased by 4.5%. Passenger load factor was 2.4 percentage
points higher than year before, 77.6%. Number of passengers carried increased by
3.1% and was 627 615.
Scheduled traffic in December
Scheduled traffic increased by 5.3%, measured in revenue passenger kilometres.
Capacity increased by 0.7%. Passenger load factor was 3.1 percentage points
higher than year before, 71.7%. Number of passengers carried increased by 1.4%
and was 509 449.
Scheduled international traffic, increased by 6.2%, measured in revenue
passenger kilometres. Capacity increased by 0.9%. Passenger load factor was 3.7
percentage points higher than year before, 72.8%. Number of passengers carried
increased by 4.2% and was 387 788.
European scheduled traffic, increased by 2.9%, measured in revenue passenger
kilometres. Capacity increased by 5.4%. Passenger load factor was 1.5 percentage
points lower than year before, 61.5%. Number of passengers carried increased by
2.6% and was 274 761.
North Atlantic scheduled traffic increased by 28.6%, measured in revenue
passenger kilometres. Capacity increased by 25.0%. Passenger load factor was 9.6
percentage points higher than year before, 86.5%. Number of passengers carried
increased by 28.6% and was 12 190.
Asian scheduled traffic increased by 6.0%, measured in revenue passenger
kilometres. Capacity decreased by 3.7%. Passenger load factor was 7.2 percentage
points lower than year before, 78.8%. Number of passengers carried increased by
6.0% and was 100 837.
Domestic scheduled traffic decreased by 8.9%, measured in revenue passenger
kilometres. Capacity decreased by 2.1%. Passenger load factor was 4.3 percentage
points higher than year before, 56.6%. Number of passengers carried decreased by
6.5% and was 121 661.
Leisure traffic in December
Leisure traffic increased by 12.9%, measured in revenue passenger kilometres.
Capacity increased by 15.2%. Passenger load factor was 1.8 percentage points
lower than year before, 92.0%. Number of passengers carried increased by 11.5%
and was 118 166.
Cargo in December
Cargo traffic decreased by 22.2% in terms of cargo tonnes carried.
Decrease in scheduled traffic was 22.3%. Cargo traffic decreased by 27.1% in
Asian traffic was, by 19.1% in European traffic and increased by 3.8% in
North-Atlantic traffic. The cargo load factor in the Asian traffic was 57.4% and
in the North Atlantic traffic 64.9%.
Cargo traffic carried on chartered cargo flights decreased by 52.3%.
Full traffic performance data available at
http://www.finnairgroup.com/linked/en/sijoittajat/Monthly_traffic_data_DEC2008EN
.pdf
Finnair Plc
Communications
8.1.2009
Additional information:
Mr. Lasse Heinonen. SVP & CFO. tel. +358 9 818 4950
Mr. Christer Haglund. SVP Corporate Communications. tel. +358 9 818 4007
Mr. Taneli Hassinen. VP Financial Communications and Investor Relations. tel.
+358 9 818 4976
Mr. Petteri Kostermaa. VP Traffic Planning. tel. +358 9 818 8504
Finnair's Asian flights carry 1.3 million passengers, flight ticket prices clearly lower
| Source: Finnair Oyj