Finnair passenger traffic grows 4% in April

Finnair carried 905,200 passengers in April 2024, a 4.2% increase from April 2023. The airline also revealed that despite impact from severe weather conditions, 74.9% of all flights arrived on schedule. The overall capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASK), increased in April by 3.9% year-on-year as additional narrowbody capacity was deployed by Finnair after the wet lease outs to British Airways ended in March 2024. With the inclusion of wet lease outs, capacity increased by 5.9% due to the co-operation with Qantas. Overall traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), increased by 1.6%. The passenger load factor (PLF) declined by 1.6% points to 72.5%. 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 in accordance with the industry practice. Capacity in Asia rose by 0.4% year-on-year, while North Atlantic capacity decreased by 14.6%. In Europe, ASKs were up by 14.1% as majority of the increase in narrowbody capacity was allocated to Europe and new routes, such as Wroclaw. Middle Eastern capacity declined by 7.4% mainly due to cancelled flights to Israel. Domestic ASKs increased by 17.5% due to the additional narrowbody capacity. Asian RPKs rose by 2.0% year-on-year, with passenger numbers up by 1.2%, and an average PLF of 74.8%. North American RPKs declined by 3.0% with passenger numbers down 3.4%, with 73.3% PLF. There was a 2.8% increase in European RPKs, with passenger numbers up by 6.4%, and average load factors of 71.7%. In the Middle East, traffic declined by 3.8% with a load factor of 68.7%. Finnair's total cargo tonnes increased by 9.6% year-on-year in April due to growth in Europe and the Middle East. Revenue cargo tonne kilometres increased by 4.1%.