In January, most passenger traffic figures clearly improved year-on-year, total month-on-month figures remained almost unchanged; cargo performance still good
In January, Finnair carried 816,200 passengers, which was 80.9% more than in January 2022 but 2.0% less than in December 2022.
The negative impact of the Russian airspace closure on Asian passenger traffic figures, which are still affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, was visible in January. 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.
Finnair’s cooperation with Qatar Airways began on 1 November 2022 as daily flights operated by Finnair from Copenhagen and Stockholm to Doha commenced. Daily Helsinki – Doha flights started in mid-December. Related traffic figures are reported by Finnair and were visible in the European figures until the end of 2022. Starting in 2023, a new traffic area, “Middle East”, is used and these flights – as well as flights to Dubai and Israel – are now reported as part of this traffic area.
The overall capacity, measured in Available Seat Kilometres (ASK), increased in January by 19.4% year-on-year and by 0.5% month-on-month. Finnair’s traffic, measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs), increased by 91.0% year-on-year but decreased by 0.2% month-on-month. The Passenger Load Factor (PLF) increased by 27.1% points year-on-year but decreased by 0.6% points month-on-month to 72.2%.
The ASK increase in Asian traffic was 25.8% year-on-year. The North Atlantic capacity decreased by 42.8% as the operations between Stockholm and the North American destinations were discontinued at the end of October. In European traffic, the ASKs were up by 24.5% whereas the Middle Eastern capacity increased by 687.1% due to Qatar Airways’ cooperation. The ASKs in domestic traffic increased by 26.4%.
RPKs increased in Asian traffic by 142.9% year-on-year but declined in North Atlantic traffic by 3.4%. In European traffic, RPKs increased by 67.9%, in Middle Eastern traffic by 729.8%, and in domestic traffic by 53.9%.
In January, the PLF improved particularly in Asian traffic (75.2%) and North Atlantic traffic (65.8%) year-on-year. The PLF was 71.5% in European traffic, 74.3% in Middle Eastern traffic, and 65.8% in domestic traffic.
Passenger numbers increased in Asian traffic by 152.0% year-on-year. In North Atlantic traffic, the number of passengers decreased by 4.7%. In European traffic, passenger numbers increased by 69.8%, in Middle Eastern traffic by 745.1%, and in domestic traffic by 67.7%.
As a result of the Russian airspace closure and a very strong comparison period, many cargo figures declined year-on-year in January. Available scheduled cargo tonne kilometers increased by 0.7% year-on-year but revenue scheduled cargo tonne kilometers decreased by 7.5%. Good demand for cargo capacity continued in January, even though the total cargo tonnes (including cargo-only operations) decreased by 24.7% year-on-year as Finnair operated several cargo-only flights during January 2022. Month-on-month decline, mainly caused by seasonality, was 12.4%.
In January, 81.2% of all Finnair flights arrived on schedule (63.1%).
