FINLAND. Finnair said it carried 578,200 passengers last month, a +4.0% gain on November last year. 486,900 passengers were carried in scheduled traffic (+7.0%) and 91,300 in leisure traffic (-9.4%). The passenger load factor, a measure of capacity use, rose by 1.4 percentage points to 68.9%.
In November demand on European routes continued its strong growth, RPKs (Revenue Passenger Kilometres) increased by +12.7%. Long haul flights also performed well. North Atlantic traffic increased by +47.9%, and Asian traffic by +37.4% compared with the same period last year.
A new pricing structure launched in September especially increased demand in Europe. Price levels suffered heavily by the fierce competition caused by over-capacity within the industry, as well as Finnair’s 80th anniversary market campaign in November.
The total passenger traffic (in RPK’s) increased by +8.5%, while the capacity (in ASKs) was up by +6.3%, resulting in a higher passenger load factor.
Cumulative January-November traffic (in RPKs) was +0.4% over the 2002 level on a capacity increase of +4.3%. Total number of passengers carried January-November was 6,306,600 (-4.1%).
