Finnair passenger numbers were up almost 86% year-on-year and nearly 1% month-on-month in February 2022.
Capacity increased in February by 24.8% year-on-year but decreased by 7.7% month-on-month, the carrier reported, Finnair's traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometres up 114% year-on-year but down 3.8% with the longer month of January 2023, with the passenger load factor up by 31.4 percentage points year-on-year to 75.2%.
Asian traffic RPKs went up by 225% year-on-year and North Atlantic by 30.2%. Finnairs European traffic saw RPKs increase by 63.1%, Middle Eastern by 646.6% and domestic by 50.1%, the carrier added.
However North American capacity, in terms of available seat kilometres, decreased by 44.7% as the operations between Stockholm and the North American destinations were discontinued at the end of October 2022.
Passenger numbers increased in Asian traffic by 222.3% year-on-year and in North Atlantic traffic by 27.1%. In European traffic, passenger numbers increased by 72.3%, in Middle Eastern traffic by 623.4% and in domestic traffic by 61.4%.
However the carrier continued to feel the effects of the Russian airspace closure, with revenue scheduled cargo tonne kilometres down by 2.7%.