Finnair Sees Drop In Passengers, Rise In Cargo in March

Finnair’s year-on-year passenger traffic figures declined, but cargo figures improved.

Finnair has reported its passenger traffic for March. The airline served 918,900 passengers, marking a slight dip of 3.6% compared to the same month last year.

Finnair saw its seat supply, measured as Available Seat Kilometres (ASK), rise by 3.9% over last year’s figures. This includes a 2.8% rise when accounting for outsourced services. Despite a minor increase of 0.3% in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs), the Passenger Load Factor (PLF) fell to 75.0%, a decrease of 2.7 percentage points. The company’s report on traffic does not adjust for longer routes caused by airspace restrictions, sticking instead to the industry-standard Great-Circle distance calculation.

Finnair Passenger Traffic By Region

Asia flights enjoyed a significant boost, with ASKs increasing by 13.5% thanks to more flights to Japan and South Korea. However, North Atlantic services saw an 11.6% drop. Europe’s ASKs climbed by 2.1%, while Middle Eastern ASKs reduced by 7.3%, primarily due to suspended flights to Israel. Finnair also increased its domestic services by 4.9%.

RPKs followed a similar trend, posting a 6.9% increase in Asia but dropping by 7.2% on North Atlantic routes. European, Middle Eastern and domestic routes also saw declines of 1.4%, 9.3%, and 1.8%, respectively.

Load factors varied, with Asian traffic achieving 73.6%, North Atlantic 72.1%, Europe 78.5%, and both Middle Eastern and domestic traffic at 72.5%.

There were fewer passengers across most routes: down 3.5% in Asia, 17.9% across the North Atlantic, 0.5% in Europe, 11.7% in the Middle East, and 7.3% domestically.

Cargo Operations and Other KPIs

Cargo operations fared better, with total cargo tonnes up by 8.6% thanks to more Asian and European capacity. Revenue cargo tonne kilometers rose by 9.2%.

In punctuality, 83.7% of Finnair flights arrived as scheduled.

The airline will release its next traffic update, with April’s figures, on Tuesday, May 7, 2024.

Finnair Traffic Performance March 2024 Table

Finnair Traffic Performance March 2024
	Month	% Change	YTD	% Change
Total traffic
Passengers 1,000	918.9	– 3.6	2,543.4	– 1.9
Available seat kilometers mill	3,106.0	3.9	8,922.9	4.4
Revenue passenger kilometers mill	2,328.9	0.3	6,435.2	0.3
Passenger load factor %	75.0	– 2.7p	72.1	– 2.9p
Cargo tonnes total	12,294.7	8.6	34,310.9	11.9
Available tonne kilometers mill	455.5	6.0	1,317.7	7.8
Revenue tonne kilometers mill	282.8	2.5	784.9	3.1
Available seat kilometers incl. wet lease out mill	3,315.4	2.8	9,540.4	3.5

Asia
Passengers 1,000	108.5	– 3.5	318.5	– 1.0
Available seat kilometers mill	1,237.4	13.5	3,552.8	12.5
Revenue passenger kilometers mill	910.1	6.9	2,516.8	4.1
Passenger load factor %	73.6	– 4.6p	70.8	– 5.7p

Europe
Passengers 1,000	537.8	– 0.5	1,452.5	0.5
Available seat kilometers mill	1,099.1	2.1	3,154.5	3.9
Revenue passenger kilometers mill	862.3	– 1.4	2,343.1	– 0.1
Passenger load factor %	78.5	– 2.8p	74.3	– 3.0p

North Atlantic
Passengers 1,000	25.8	– 17.9	73.1	– 10.8
Available seat kilometers mill	313.6	– 11.6	888.4	– 9.5
Revenue passenger kilometers mill	226.0	– 7.2	594.3	– 6.7
Passenger load factor %	72.1	3.4p	66.9	2.0p

Middle East
Passengers 1,000	42.0	– 11.7	131.1	– 7.0
Available seat kilometers mill	262.5	– 7.3	771.5	– 7.0
Revenue passenger kilometers mill	190.3	– 9.3	594.7	– 4.9
Passenger load factor %	72.5	– 1.6p	77.1	1.7p

Domestic
Passengers 1,000	204.9	– 7.3	568.2	– 5.7
Available seat kilometers mill	193.5	4.9	555.7	2.1
Revenue passenger kilometers mill	140.2	– 1.8	386.3	– 1.6
Passenger load factor %	72.5	– 5.0p	69.5	– 2.6p

Cargo traffic
– Europe tonnes	2,188.9	26.8	5,894.8	35.9
– North Atlantic tonnes	1,053.8	– 22.7	3,079.0	– 20.9
– Middle East tonnes	2,221.5	5.0	5,965.3	1.1
– Asia tonnes	6,760.6	12.6	19,187.2	17.6
– Domestic tonnes	20.0	– 42.1	63.1	– 35.5
– Cargo flights tonnes*	49.9	– 37.1	121.5	13.9
Cargo traffic tonnes total	12,294.7	8.6	34,310.9	11.9
Revenue cargo tonne kilometers mill	74.6	9.2	209.6	11.6

Source: Finnair

* Including purchased traffic

Change %: Change compared to the figures of the respective periods in the previous year (p = points, N/A = not available).
Available seat kilometres. ASK: Total number of seats available multiplied by kilometers flown.
Revenue passenger kilometres. RPK: The number of revenue passengers carried is multiplied by the kilometers flown.
Passenger load factor: Share of revenue passenger kilometers of available seat kilometers.
Available tonne kilometres. ATK: The number of tonnes of capacity for carriage of passengers, cargo, and mail multiplied by the kilometers flown.
Revenue tonne kilometers (RTK): The Total revenue load, consisting of passengers, cargo, and mail multiplied by kilometers flown.