Strong passenger load factor and nearly one million passengers in July; solid cargo performance continued
The COVID-19 impact, including the strict travel restrictions imposed by many countries, still affected passenger traffic figures, and it was particularly visible in the Asian figures. The Russian airspace closed at the end of February due to the counter-sanctions related to the war in Ukraine, which resulted in route and frequency cancellations in Asian traffic. Thanks to robust demand for cargo, Finnair, however, continued operating to most of its Asian destinations despite the longer routings. Thus, the negative impact of the airspace closure on Asian passenger traffic figures, which were already affected by the pandemic, remained moderate in July. The distance-based reported traffic figures do not take into account longer routings caused by the airspace closure as they are based on Great-Circle distance.
The ASK increase in Asian traffic was 100.5% year-on-year. The North Atlantic capacity increased by 256.5%. In European traffic, the ASKs were up by 285.7%. The ASKs in domestic traffic increased by 69.0%.
RPKs increased in Asian traffic by 634.1%, in North Atlantic traffic by 1,000.9%, in European traffic by 424.8% and in domestic traffic by 81.2% year-on-year.
The PLF improved particularly in Asian traffic (79.2%) and North Atlantic traffic (90.4%) in July. The PLF was 88.7% in European traffic and 77.3% in domestic traffic.
Passenger numbers increased in Asian traffic by 650.6% year-on-year. In North Atlantic traffic, the number of passengers increased by 975.4% to 81,700, which is a new record. In European traffic, passenger numbers increased by 390.2% and in domestic traffic by 109.2%.
Despite the Russian airspace closure, most cargo figures improved year on year and remained close to June 2022 figures in July. Available scheduled cargo tonne-kilometres increased by 96.0% year-on-year (increased by 4.0% month-on-month) and revenue scheduled cargo tonne-kilometres increased by 56.8% (decreased by 1.6% month-on-month), both due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on scheduled flights in July 2021. Cargo-related available tonne kilometres increased by 43.8% year-on-year (increased by 4.2% month-on-month) and revenue tonne-kilometres increased by 10.6% (decreased by 1.2% month-on-month). These figures also include the cargo-only flights which were, however, almost entirely replaced by scheduled passenger flights carrying cargo in July. Strong demand for cargo capacity continued in July as the total cargo tonnes increased by 33.8% year-on-year (decreased by 1.7% month-on-month).
In July, 75.2% of all Finnair flights arrived on schedule (90.8%). On-time performance decreased year on year and was impacted by various capacity challenges in the European aviation system. Finnair’s Helsinki hub is functioning well, however, and Finnair’s relative on-time performance was good.
Traffic statistics for August 2022 will be published on Tuesday 6 September 2022.
| Finnair Traffic Performance July 2022 | ||||
| Month | % Change | YTD | % Change | |
| Total traffic | ||||
| Passengers 1,000 | 999.6 | 367.4 | 4,874.2 | 537.4 |
| Available seat kilometres mill | 2,871.0 | 204.4 | 17,627.4 | 394.8 |
| Revenue passenger kilometres mill | 2,485.6 | 520.8 | 11,029.2 | 866.5 |
| Passenger load factor % | 86.6 | 44.1p | 62.6 | 30.5p |
| Cargo tonnes total | 9,246.8 | 33.8 | 73,592.3 | 55.8 |
| Available tonne kilometres mill | 393.8 | 121.3 | 2,660.6 | 157.0 |
| Revenue tonne kilometres mill | 279.3 | 220.0 | 1,470.8 | 226.4 |
| Asia | ||||
| Passengers 1,000 Asia | 72.6 | 650.6 | 331.0 | 986.8 |
| Available seat kilometres mill Asia | 684.0 | 100.5 | 4,734.1 | 178.2 |
| Revenue passenger kilometres mill Asia | 541.7 | 634.1 | 2,496.5 | 988.3 |
| Passenger load factor % Asia | 79.2 | 57.6p | 52.7 | 39.3p |
| Europe | ||||
| Passengers 1,000 Europe | 757.1 | 390.2 | 3,439.7 | 648.7 |
| Available seat kilometres mill Europe | 1,447.9 | 285.7 | 7,873.4 | 540.4 |
| Revenue passenger kilometres mill Europe | 1,283.8 | 424.8 | 5,736.2 | 786.9 |
| Passenger load factor % Europe | 88.7 | 23.5p | 72.9 | 20.3p |
| North Atlantic | ||||
| Passengers 1,000 North Atlantic | 81.7 | 975.4 | 306.0 | 2,392.4 |
| Available seat kilometres mill North Atlantic | 677.4 | 256.5 | 4,301.2 | 1,129.1 |
| Revenue passenger kilometres mill North Atlantic | 612.3 | 1,000.9 | 2,295.8 | 2,474.2 |
| Passenger load factor % North Atlantic | 90.4 | 61.1p | 53.4 | 27.9p |
| Domestic | ||||
| Passengers 1,000 Domestic | 88.2 | 109.2 | 797.5 | 203.8 |
| Available seat kilometres mill Domestic | 61.8 | 69.0 | 718.7 | 155.4 |
| Revenue passenger kilometres mill Domestic | 47.7 | 81.2 | 500.7 | 184.7 |
| Passenger load factor % Domestic | 77.3 | 5.2p | 69.7 | 7.2p |
| Cargo traffic | ||||
| Europe tonnes | 2,013.2 | 760.6 | 12,462.6 | 877.4 |
| North Atlantic tonnes | 2,716.1 | 127.0 | 20,518.6 | 775.1 |
| Asia tonnes | 4,356.5 | 25.5 | 31,583.7 | 79.2 |
| Domestic tonnes | 25.7 | -2.3 | 200.7 | 6.8 |
| Cargo scheduled traffic total tonnes | 9,111.5 | 84.9 | 64,765.6 | 202.2 |
| Cargo flights tonnes** | 135.4 | -93.2 | 8,826.7 | -65.8 |
| Cargo Traffic tonnes total | 9,246.8 | 33.8 | 73,592.3 | 55.8 |
| Available tonne kilometres* mill | 94.5 | 43.8 | 774.6 | 80.3 |
| Revenue tonne kilometres mill | 57.0 | 10.6 | 485.9 | 39.2 |
| Available sched. cargo tonne kms* mill | 93.2 | 96.0 | 687.6 | 260.7 |
| Revenue sched. cargo tonne kms mill | 56.1 | 56.8 | 419.0 | 173.0 |
| Cargo load factor* % | 60.4 | -18.2p | 62.7 | -18.6p |
| - North-Atlantic cargo load factor* % | 51.5 | -14.6p | 59.1 | -12.0p |
| - Asia cargo load factor* % | 79.3 | -6.5p | 71.3 | -14.7p |
| Scheduled traffic cargo load factor* % | 60.2 | -15.1p | 60.9 | -19.6p |
* Based on average operational cargo capacity
** Including purchased traffic
- Change %: Change compared to the figures of the respective periods in the previous year (p = points, N/A = not available).
- Available seat kilometres. ASK: Total number of seats available multiplied by kilometres flown.
- Revenue passenger kilometres. RPK: Number of revenue passengers carried multiplied by kilometres flown.
- Passenger load factor: Share of revenue passenger kilometres of available seat kilometres.
- Available tonne-kilometres. ATK: Number of tonnes of capacity for carriage of passengers, cargo and mail multiplied by kilometres flown.
- Revenue tonne-kilometres. RTK: Total revenue load consisting of passengers, cargo and mail multiplied by kilometres flown.
- Overall load factor: Share of revenue tonne kilometres of available tonne kilometres.