In October, Finnair carried 1,141,700 passengers, 8.2% more than in the corresponding period of 2017. The number of passengers continued to grow in European and domestic traffic, which grew by 11.0% and 8.3%. Long-haul growth was roughly in line with the corresponding period.
Finnair's overall capacity measured in Available Seat Kilometres (ASK) increased in October by 8.7% year-on-year. Finnair's traffic measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs) grew by 5.3%. The higher ASK growth rate was reflected in the Passenger Load Factor (PLF), which decreased year-on-year by -2.6% points to 79.5%.
Long-haul capacity grew moderately in October since no new A350 aircrafts have been introduced after the reference period. The ASK growth in Asian traffic was 2.2%. The growth was mainly directed at frequency additions to Tokyo and to the new route opening, Nanjing. In North American traffic ASKs increased by 5.4%.
In European traffic the ASK growth was 18.2%, 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 Northern and Central Europe and new route openings to Stuttgart, Lisbon and Minsk after the comparison period. ASK growth in domestic traffic was 8.7%.
In October, RPKs grew slower than ASKs which was reflected in the passenger load factors. RPKs decreased by -0.5% in Asian traffic and grew in European traffic 13.7%, in domestic traffic 8.8% and in North American traffic 2.5%. The PLF was 81.2% in Asian traffic, 78.5% in European traffic, 80.2% in North American traffic, and 66.6% in domestic traffic.
Available scheduled cargo tonne kilometres increased by 6.8% year-on-year. Revenue scheduled cargo tonne kilometres increased by 12.6% mostly driven by the strong positive cargo market development Japan. The positive development was also seen in Finland and routes to USA. Finnair’s total cargo capacity included also three weekly freighter flights between Helsinki and Brussels, operated by DHL. Total cargo traffic volume achieved an all-time high monthly volume measured in tonnes by increasing 4.3% from the comparison period when Finnair rented cargo space from Japan Airlines.
In October 86.8% of all Finnair flights arrived on schedule (82.9%).