Passenger traffic
Even though the passenger traffic figures continued to improve year-on-year, the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related travel restrictions was still clearly visible in the 2022 figures and especially in H1. Further, the Russian airspace closure had a negative impact on the figures in 2022. Passenger revenue increased by 306.5 per cent and traffic capacity, measured in Available Seat Kilometres (ASK), increased by 158.8 per cent overall against the comparison period.
The number of passengers increased by 218.9 per cent to 9,095,800 passengers. Traffic measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPK) increased by 308.6 per cent and the passenger load factor (PLF) increased by 24.8 percentage points to 67.6 per cent. The distance-based reported traffic figures do not take into account longer routings caused by the airspace closure as they are based on the Great-Circle distance.
In Asian traffic, the number of scheduled passenger flights remained limited because of the pandemic impacts. Moreover, Finnair cancelled multiple flights to and from Asia in March following the Russian airspace closure even though it was able to continue operating most of the routes by using longer routings. The number of scheduled passenger flights was nevertheless clearly more than in the comparison period as in Q4 2021 travel opened to e.g., Thailand, Singapore and India, and as Finnair commenced flights from Sweden to Thailand which were, however, discontinued at the end of October 2022. Therefore, ASKs grew by 100.6 per cent and RPKs by as much as 484.1 per cent. PLF increased by 41.0 percentage points to 62.4 per cent. As PLF was still weak and capacity clearly lower than pre-pandemic, it resulted in low passenger revenue compared to 2019. Revenue overall was, however, supported by the strong cargo operations.
In addition to the scheduled passenger flights to New York, which were operated from March 2021, Finnair reopened the Chicago and Los Angeles routes in June 2021 and the Miami route was reopened for the winter season 2021/2022. Finnair also commenced direct flights from Stockholm to New York, Los Angeles and Miami during Q4 2021, which were, however, discontinued at the end of October 2022, and from Helsinki to Dallas in March and to Seattle in June 2022. As a result, North Atlantic ASKs in 2022 increased by 65.8 per cent compared to 2019 whereas RPKs increased only 13.7 per cent. On the other hand, ASKs and RPKs increased in 2022 by 195.4 and 460.9 per cent, respectively, year-on-year as no passenger flights to the United States were operated during the first two months of 2021 and only one weekly return flight to New York was operated between March and May 2021. Even though PLF increased by 27.7 percentage points to 58.5 per cent year-on-year, it remained weak. As in Asia, revenue overall was supported by the strong cargo operations.
ASKs grew by 208.5 per cent in European traffic, as loosened travel restrictions within Europe have had a meaningful and positive effect on demand from late summer 2021 onwards. In addition, Finnair started its cooperation with Qatar Airways during Q4 related to flights from Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki to Doha. The figures for these three daily routes operated by Finnair were reported until the end of 2022 as a part of Europe, but from the beginning of 2023, they will be reported as a part of the new traffic area Middle East. RPKs grew by 251.4 per cent and the PLF by 9.1 percentage points to 74.9 per cent in European traffic.Domestic traffic capacity increased by 80.6 per cent, RPKs by 92.5 per cent and the PLF by 4.3 percentage points to 70.3 per cent.
Ancillary
Ancillary revenue, consisting of e.g., various service fees and inflight sales, increased to 123.2 million euros (44.1). Excess baggage, advance seat reservations and frequent flyer programme-related revenue were the largest ancillary categories.
Cargo
Although Finnair operated a lower number of scheduled passenger flights, especially to Asia, compared to the pre-pandemic era, due to the COVID-19 related restrictions as well as the closure of the Russian airspace at the end of February, available scheduled cargo tonne-kilometres increased by 108.6 per cent year-on-year, whereas revenue scheduled cargo tonne-kilometres increased by 67.0 per cent. Cargo-related available tonne kilometres increased by 30.6 per cent, and revenue tonne-kilometres increased by 2.2 per cent; both include the cargo-only flights, which were operated mainly between Europe and Asia as well as between Europe and North America. Strong cargo demand continued as total cargo tonnes increased by 16.9 per cent and cargo revenue increased by 5.3 per cent year-on-year and was a record high.
Travel services
In Q1, package holidays’ financial development was significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the related travel restrictions and guidelines. Their impact was already very moderate in Q2 and they were lifted in Europe in Q3, thus, resulting in robust demand during H2. During 2022, both international and domestic package holidays were produced whereas in the comparison period, production consisted mainly of domestic package holidays. Because of this, the total number of Travel Services passengers grew by as much as 291.4 per cent and the load factor in allotment-based capacity was 93.1 per cent. Travel Services revenue increased to 170.3 million euros (38.7).
Other operating income
Other operating income increased to 146.7 million euros (39.2) mainly due to income related to the agreed wet leases, which were operated starting from Q2 2022, with Lufthansa-owned Eurowings Discover and British Airways. The wet leases for British Airways ended at the end of Q3 2022 but the ones with Eurowings Discover will continue until the end of current winter season.
Annual report 2022 (finnair.com)
