May 2011 Traffic Performance

In May 2011, Finnair traffic measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres rose by 7.4% compared with May 2010. Capacity measured in Available Seat Kilometres grew by 9.2%, 10.1% in Asian traffic. Due to Asian traffic growth, European feeder traffic capacity was also boosted by, among other things, increasing the share of traffic operated with larger aircraft. In addition, two Embraer 190 aircraft joined the fleet earlier this year.

Long-haul business travel demand has developed positively and business class travel grew in May, particularly in Asian traffic. Finnair began daily scheduled flights to Singapore on May 30 and now operates schedule flights to ten Far Eastern destinations.

Demand in traffic to Japan is still below normal levels, but business travel to Japan is recovering. Travel directed from Japan to Europe is on a good level. On average, approximately 70% of passengers travelling on Finnair’s Japan routes annually are Japanese.

In North American traffic, direct scheduled flights to Toronto began on May 26. The route was previously served by leisure flights in the summer season. Finnair flies to Toronto five times per week.

The current overcapacity in the domestic traffic is reflected in lower load factors compared to previous year. The capacity change in Finnair’s domestic traffic is mainly due to changes in a feeder-traffic purchase agreement concluded with Finnish Commuter Airlines. As a result, flights previously operated with Finncomm codes have been included in Finnair’s 2011 production.

From the beginning of the summer season some of the previous leisure flights have been operated as scheduled services. The capacity change in Finnair’s leisure traffic results mainly from these changes.

The ash cloud caused by the Grímsvötn volcano in Iceland did not have a significant effect on Finnair traffic in May. Some flights to northern Germany, however, were cancelled due to the closure of destination airports, and some long-haul flights were slightly delayed due to routing changes. Despite these reroutings, the arrival punctuality of Finnair flights in May was good: 88.9% (87.4%) of all flights arrived on schedule. The arrival punctuality of scheduled flights was 89.4% (88.5%).