In November, Finnair carried 980,100 passengers, 3.2% more than in the corresponding period of 2017. The overall capacity measured in available seat kilometres (ASK) increased in November by 7.2%. Finnair's traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) grew by 2.1%. The passenger load factor decreased year-on-year by -3.8% points to 74.6%.
Long-haul capacity remained at the reference period’s level as there were no changes in Finnair’s wide-body fleet year-on-year. The ASK growth in Asian traffic was down by -1.5% as some capacity was transferred from Asian routes to North American routes. The North American traffic was up by 19.4%, when flights to Chicago and San Francisco were extended to November.
In European traffic the ASK growth was 19.1%, which derived from the increase in the narrow-body fleet size year-on-year and the additional seating capacity added to some of the existing narrow-body aircraft. The added capacity was directed at frequency additions to several destinations in Europe but focused more in to the longer southern Europe routes and to new route openings to Stuttgart, Lisbon and Minsk after the comparison period. ASK growth in domestic traffic was 5.3%.
In November, RPKs grew slower than ASKs which was reflected in the passenger load factors. RPKs decreased by -5.3% in Asian traffic and grew in European traffic 11.4%, in North American traffic 18.9% and in domestic traffic 0.1%. The PLF was 77.5% in Asian traffic, 72.5% in European traffic, 75.2% in North American traffic, and 61.1% in domestic traffic.
Passenger numbers declined in Asian traffic by -4.6% and in domestic traffic by -0.5% and increased in European traffic by 6.6% and in North American traffic by 19.1%
Available scheduled cargo tonne kilometres increased by 19.7% year-on-year. Revenue scheduled cargo tonne kilometres increased by 16.4% mostly driven by the strong positive cargo market development in Japan and Sweden. Additionally, favourable development was also visible in our Chinese routes. The total cargo traffic volume measured in tonnes increased by 11.2% from the comparison period.
In November 85.6% of all Finnair flights arrived on schedule (81.6%).