September results released from Finnair shop impressive growth as the airline expands its reach and network. The airline measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres grew by 16.9 percent. The number of passengers carried in September was 1.08 million, corresponding to an increase of 10.7 percent year-on-year. The passenger load factor increased by 4.6 percentage points to 85.3 percent.
The capacity in Finnair’s largest traffic area, Asia, increased by 15.4 percent in September and traffic grew by 21.5 percent. The passenger load factor increased by 4.5 percentage points to 88.9 percent. The selection of routes was mainly unchanged year-on-year, but there were more frequencies to many destinations, Tokyo and Hong Kong in particular.
The capacity in North Atlantic traffic was broadly unchanged (ASK -0.3 percent), but traffic increased by 17.9 percent: the passenger load factor rose by as much as 13.4 percentage points to 86.6 percent. The most significant year-on-year changes in the flight programme were the suspension of the Miami route for the summer and the launch of a new San Francisco route, operated three times a week from the beginning of June until the end of September.
Finnair’s capacity in European traffic increased by 8.6 percent reflecting new seasonal routes opened for the summer as well as four new A321 narrow-body aircraft. Traffic measured in RPK grew by 12.3 percent year-on-year. Domestic capacity decreased 3.0 percent. However, traffic decreased slightly less than that (RPK -1.2 percent) and the passenger load factor rose.
Available Scheduled Cargo Tonne Kilometres increased by 10.5 per cent and Revenue Scheduled Cargo Tonne Kilometres increased by 15.9 percent. The strongest growth markets year-on-year were Japan, Germany, Sweden, Hong Kong and the main Chinese destinations. Finnair’s total cargo capacity also included three weekly freighter flights between Helsinki and Brussels, operated by DHL as well as cargo space rented on Japan Airlines’ daily flights between Tokyo and Helsinki.
In September, 87.2 percent of all Finnair flights arrived on schedule (90.9).
According to preliminary data, Finnair’s unit revenue, or RASK (total Group revenue divided by ASK), increased in July–September by 3.3 percent year-on-year and totalled 7.29 euro cents.
“The third quarter was very strong in terms of traffic performance. Our capacity increased by over 10 percent in each month, but demand growth nevertheless clearly exceeded capacity growth. It is also worth pointing out that our unit revenue increased while load factors improved”, says Finnair CFO Pekka Vähähyyppä.
Finnair Traffic Performance September 2017
| September 2017 | %-Change | Year-to date 2017 | %-Change | |
| Total Traffic | ||||
| Passengers 1000 | 1 075,7 | 10,7 | 8 948,5 | 8,2 |
| Available seat kilometres mill | 3 252,0 | 10,6 | 27 315,4 | 6,2 |
| Revenue passenger kilometres mill | 2 775,1 | 16,9 | 23 032,0 | 11,6 |
| Passenger load factor % | 85,3 | 4,6 | 84,3 | 4,1 |
| Cargo tonnes total | 15 196,8 | 13,2 | 116 143,2 | 5,8 |
| Available tonne kilometres mill | 489,7 | 11,9 | 4 078,8 | 7,5 |
| Revenue tonne-kilometres mill | 343,1 | 16,6 | 2 774,4 | 10,5 |
| Overall load factor % | 70,1 | 2,8 | 68,0 | 1,9 |
❗This article was written for this site by a member of our team 🙋, please do share it with your friends via social media. You are also welcome to post it or republish elsewhere on the 🌎web on the condition that you credit the author and link back to our site. Thank you.
♻ We care about the environment, please think twice before you hit ‘print’
