Finnair’s Asian traffic, measured in passenger kilometres, grew by just over 7% in January compared with January the previous year. Scheduled traffic grew by just over 5% and traffic overall by more than 3%.
“Demand is on a growth track, but we are still suffering to some extent from the after-effects of the cabin staff strike. We increased capacity in anticipation of growth, but the passenger kilometre growth figures remained relatively modest due to the after-effects of the strike. As a result, passenger load factors declined,” says Finnair’s Chief Financial Officer Erno Hildén.
In Asian traffic, capacity was increased by more than 20%, thereby reducing the load factor by nearly nine percentage points to 73%. Scheduled traffic capacity was increased by more than 16% and the load factor declined by just over seven percentage points to 67%.
North American traffic grew by just over 7%, European traffic grew by nearly 10% and domestic traffic by more than 9% in January, measured in passenger kilometres. Load factors declined in all scheduled traffic segments.
Leisure traffic declined by slightly more than 2% compared with January last year. In leisure traffic, capacity was also reduced by more than 2%, so the load factor rose to just over 93%.
The amount of cargo carried by Finnair grew by 41% in January compared with the previous year. A pick-up in demand, particularly in traffic between Europe and Asia, and the impact of cargo aircraft traffic launched in May last year are evident in cargo growth.
The arrival punctuality of Finnair flights in January was 71%, which is more than 12 percentage points better than last year. The arrival punctuality of scheduled flights was 73%, which is also more than 12 percentage points better than in January the previous year.
