Finnair's load factors decreased, average prices improved
Finnair traffic, measured in passenger kilometers, increased by 9.6% in April, while the capacity was up by 18.0%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 69.8% or 5.4 points lower than last year. Finnair's Asian traffic, measured in passenger kilometers, grew 24.2% compared to April of the previous year. Number of passengers carried on Finnair's Asian flights in April was 89 238, which is 15.1% more than a year ago. RPKs in European traffic decreased by 1.0% and passenger load factor decreased by 7.1 percentage points to 62.8%.
Finnair scheduled traffic altogether increased by 11.4% compared to April last year. Number of passengers carried on scheduled flights was 593 395, which is 4.1% more than in April 2007. Passenger load factor in scheduled passenger traffic was 68.4%, 6.0 percentage points lower than last year.
The decrease in European airlines' passenger load factors indicate a leveling off of growth and demand in lower price categories. The decrease in Finnair's passenger load factor in all traffic areas is also due to high load factors resulting from campaign pricing in the spring of the comparison year.
The increase in capacity in Finnair's European traffic has focused on routes with great deal of business travel such as Frankfurt, Munich, Geneva and Moscow. The increase in capacity can be seen in lower load factors but improved average prices. Also on long-haul routes demand for business class has increased significantly faster than in traffic overall.
Leisure flights' passenger load factor decreased by 1.5 percentage points to 77.6% compared to the previous year. Finnair transported altogether 665 969 passengers, which is 3.6% more than a year ago.
Finnair's Tallinn-based subsidiary Aero AS ended operations on 6 January 2008. Aero figures are respectively included in Finnair Group total figures. In April 2007 Finnair sold its Stockholm-based subsidiary airline FlyNordic and its traffic performance is no longer reported as part of Finnair Group statistics. For better comparison, equivalent figures for last year have been adjusted accordingly.
Finnair's punctuality has significantly improved compared with the first quarter of the year. Arrival punctuality of scheduled flights was 85.0%, 1.4 points lower than in April 2007. Including leisure flights arrival punctuality was 83.2% (-2.4 p.p).
Scheduled traffic
In scheduled traffic (international + domestic) revenue passenger kilometres increased by 11.4%. The change in capacity was 21.1%. Passenger load factor was 68.4%, 6.0 percentage points lower than last year.
In scheduled international traffic, total number of passengers was up by 6.0%. Capacity in ASKs was 22.7%, while RPKs increased by 12.2%.
In European scheduled traffic, ASKs increased by 10.2%, and as RPKs decreased by 1.0%, the passenger load factor was 62.8%, down 7.1 points from previous year.
In North Atlantic scheduled traffic, capacity increased by 19.1%. Change in RPKs was 9.8%, and passenger load factor for April was 76.5%, -6.5 points lower than previous year.
In Asian scheduled traffic, capacity increase was 36.0%. The passenger traffic was up by 24.2%. Passenger load factor was 73.5%, 7.0 percentage points down.
Domestic scheduled traffic increased by 2.6% on a capacity increase of 5.9%. Passenger load factor decreased by 1.9 percentage points to 60.2%.
Leisure traffic
ASKs for leisure traffic increased in April by 3.8%, and RPKs increased by 1.8%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 77.6%, 1.5 points lower than last year.
Cargo
Cargo traffic increased by 15.8% in terms of cargo tonnes carried. Growth in scheduled traffic was 23.1%. Increase in Asian traffic was 30.8%. Volume in European traffic increased by 8.4%. In North-Atlantic traffic cargo volume increased by 15.0%. Cargo traffic carried on chartered cargo flights decreased by 51.1%. The cargo load factor in the Far Eastern traffic was 80.0% and in the North Atlantic traffic 74.6%.
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