In 2010, boosted by Asian traffic, Finnair’s scheduled traffic grew by 2.5% compared with the previous year. Finnair’s Asian traffic alone grew by 8%. A total of 6.2 million passengers were carried in scheduled traffic during the year, which was just under 1% less than the previous year. In Asian traffic, Finnair carried more than 1.2 million passengers.
“We have done well in achieving growth in Asian traffic in line with our strategy, and the price level of tickets has also developed more favourably,” says Finnair’s Chief Financial Officer Erno Hildén.
Unit revenues per passenger kilometre in Finnair’s scheduled traffic rose in the final quarter of the year by 15%. Due to strong third quarter, unit revenues per passenger kilometre rose in the whole of last year by 9%. The positive development of unit revenues is due mainly to an increase in business travel in traffic between Europe and Asia.
On all Finnair flights, 7.1 million passengers were carried in 2010, which was 4% less than in 2009. As a result of the volcanic eruption in Iceland, ash restricted flying in the spring, which, together with a cabin staff strike and a decline in leisure traffic, reduced Finnair’s overall traffic by just under 4%. European traffic declined by 2.5% and domestic traffic by just over 4% last year.
Capacity was successfully reduced, however, to meet the fall in demand, so the load factor improved in all traffic by just under one percentage point to 77% and in scheduled traffic by just over than one percentage point to nearly 75%. In Asian traffic, the load factor climbed by nearly three percentage points to nearly 82%.
The amount of cargo carried by Finnair grew by 38% in 2010. This impressive growth figure is due mainly to the cargo aircraft operations that began in May, but also due to a pick-up in cargo demand, particularly in Asia.
The December traffic figures were adversely affected by a strike by cabin staff, which lasted more than a week. Traffic declined by more than 26% compared with December the previous year. Cargo, however, grew in December by 33%, because cargo was flown also during the strike.
In December, punctuality also suffered as a result of the strike. Just under 58% of flights arrived on schedule, and punctuality in scheduled traffic was just over 59%. In December of the comparison year, punctuality figures were low, so the improvement both for traffic as a whole and scheduled traffic was more than 7%.
