Finnair Posts 8.9 Percent Passenger Growth in September

In September, Finnair's overall capacity measured in Available Passenger Kilometres grew by 2.5 percent and traffic measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres grew by 4.4 percent year-on-year. The number of passengers increased 8.9 percent to 916,700. The passenger load factor increased by 1.4 percentage points to 81.6 percent.

The capacity in Asian traffic decreased in September by 5.1 percent, while traffic measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres decreased by 1.8 percent year-on-year. The capacity decrease reflects comfort-improving cabin configuration changes made across the wide-body fleet last winter, and the discontinuation of the seasonal Hanoi route in June 2015, whereas it was operated until September last year. At the same time, the opening of the seasonal Chicago route in June shows as pronounced growth in American traffic.

The capacity in European traffic grew by 4.6 percent and traffic measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres grew by 5.4 percent year-on-year. The capacity growth reflects, among other things, the change of certain European charter flights into scheduled traffic and new summer season routes. At the same time, the growth in domestic traffic is attributed to the transfer of the flights previously operated at Norra's own commercial risk to Finnair's purchased traffic.

In July-September, the passenger unit revenue* per available seat kilometre grew by 5.8 percent year-on-year and totaled 5.94 euro cents.

"Finnair continued its steady growth in spite of somewhat turbulent environment. The third quarter is seasonally strong for Finnair, and our passenger unit revenues and passenger load factors also improved on last year", says Finnair CFO Pekka Vähähyyppä.

In September, the cargo capacity in scheduled traffic measured in Available Tonne Kilometres grew by 8.0 percent, and Revenue Tonne Kilometres decreased by 5.2 percent year-on-year. The cargo load factor in scheduled traffic was 53.8 percent. The overall cargo figures reflect a structural change from the comparison period, as Finnair withdrew from the use of leased NGA freighter aircraft capacity in Asian traffic. In contrast with the previous months, Finnair's capacity included shared freighter flights with IAG twice a week between Helsinki and London commencing in mid-September.

In September, 92.5 percent of all Finnair flights arrived on schedule (92.7).

* Unit revenue = Ticket revenue/ASK