Finnair Traffic Performance in December 2022

Finnair Plc                Investor News              5 January 2023 at 9:00 a.m. EET

In December, most passenger traffic figures clearly improved year-on-year and month-on-month; seasonally strong cargo performance

In December, Finnair carried 832,900 passengers, which was 38.2% more than in December 2021 and 10.9% more than in November 2022. Month-on-month figures are, however, not fully comparable as there was one day less in November.

The COVID-19 impact, including the strict travel restrictions imposed by some countries, still affected passenger traffic figures, and it was particularly visible in the Asian figures. The Russian airspace closed at the end of February due to the counter sanctions related to the war in Ukraine, which resulted in route and frequency cancellations in Asian traffic. Thanks to robust demand for cargo, Finnair, however, continued operating to most of its Asian destinations despite the longer routings. The negative impact of the airspace closure on Asian passenger traffic figures, which were already affected by the pandemic, was, nevertheless, visible in December. 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.

Finnair's cooperation with Qatar Airways began on 1 November as daily flights from Copenhagen and Stockholm to Doha were commenced. Daily Helsinki - Doha flights were started in mid-December. Related traffic figures are reported by Finnair and those are currently visible in the European figures. Starting from January 2023 traffic performance release, a new traffic area Middle East will be introduced and these flights as well as flights to Dubai and Israel will be transferred into the new traffic area.

The overall capacity, measured in Available Seat Kilometres (ASK), increased in December by 13.4% year-on-year and by 15.1% month-on-month. Finnair operated, on average, 263 daily flights (cargo-only included), which was 14.3% more than in December 2021 and 4.8% more than in November 2022. Finnair's traffic, measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs), increased by 51.4% year-on-year and by 17.2% month-on-month. The Passenger Load Factor (PLF) increased by 18.3% points year-on-year and by 1.3% points month-on-month to 72.7%.

The ASK increase in Asian traffic was 17.9% year-on-year. The North Atlantic capacity decreased by 35.4% as the operations between Stockholm and the North American destinations were discontinued at the end of October. In European traffic, the ASKs were up by 37.3%. The ASKs in domestic traffic increased by 16.4%.

RPKs increased in Asian traffic by 119.2% year-on-year but declined in North Atlantic traffic by 17.7%. In European traffic, RPKs increased by 51.7% and in domestic traffic by 23.5%.

In December, the PLF improved particularly in Asian traffic (72.4%) and North Atlantic traffic (71.3%) year-on-year. The PLF was 74.0% in European traffic and 68.4% in domestic traffic.

Passenger numbers increased in Asian traffic by 129.3% year-on-year. In North Atlantic traffic, the number of passengers decreased by 19.8%. In European traffic, passenger numbers increased by 37.2% and in domestic traffic by 28.8%.

As a result of the Russian airspace closure, many cargo figures declined year-on-year in December. However, most cargo figures improved month-on-month. Available scheduled cargo tonne kilometres increased by 7.1% year-on-year (increased by 17.7% month-on-month) but revenue scheduled cargo tonne kilometres decreased by 8.7% (increased by 7.4% month-on-month). Cargo-related available tonne kilometres decreased by 19.2% year-on-year (increased by 17.8% month-on-month) and revenue tonne kilometres decreased by 34.8% (increased by 7.5% month-on-month). These figures also include the cargo-only flights and in December, only a few such flights were operated. Strong demand for cargo capacity continued in December, even though the total cargo tonnes decreased by 24.2% year-on-year as December 2021 was very strong (increased by 7.1% month-on-month).

In December, 67.8% of all Finnair flights arrived on schedule (56.3%). On-time performance was mainly impacted by severe weather conditions.

Traffic statistics for January 2023 will be published on Tuesday 7 February 2023.

Finnair Traffic
Performance December
2022
Month % Change YTD % Change
Total traffic
Passengers 1,000 832.9 38.2 9,095.8 218.9
Available seat 2,877.5 13.4 31,298.4 158.8
kilometres mill
Revenue passenger 2,092.4 51.4 21,156.8 308.6
kilometres mill
Passenger load factor % 72.7 18.3p 67.6 24.8p
Cargo tonnes total 10,798.3 -24.2 122,719.0 16.9
Available tonne 411.5 -5.6 4,564.8 76.1
kilometres mill
Revenue tonne kilometres 253.5 12.4 2,678.2 117.3
mill

Asia
Passengers 1,000 Asia 104.0 129.3 746.6 498.5
Available seat 1,067.7 17.9 8,953.1 100.6
kilometres mill Asia
Revenue passenger 773.4 119.2 5,586.0 484.1
kilometres mill Asia
Passenger load factor % 72.4 33.5p 62.4 41.0p
Asia

Europe
Passengers 1,000 Europe 499.8 37.2 6,355.2 230.3
Available seat 1,266.5 37.3 14,330.1 208.5
kilometres mill Europe
Revenue passenger 936.9 51.7 10,730.2 251.4
kilometres mill Europe
Passenger load factor % 74.0 7.0p 74.9 9.1p
Europe

North Atlantic
Passengers 1,000 North 32.3 -19.8 524.7 455.8
Atlantic
Available seat 352.8 -35.4 6,743.3 195.4
kilometres mill North
Atlantic
Revenue passenger 251.7 -17.7 3,946.2 460.9
kilometres mill North
Atlantic
Passenger load factor % 71.3 15.4p 58.5 27.7p
North Atlantic

Domestic
Passengers 1,000 196.9 28.8 1,469.4 107.2
Domestic
Available seat 190.5 16.4 1,271.8 80.6
kilometres mill Domestic
Revenue passenger 130.4 23.5 894.4 92.5
kilometres mill Domestic
Passenger load factor % 68.4 4.0p 70.3 4.3p
Domestic

Cargo traffic
Europe tonnes 3,361.2 167.9 25,213.2 441.6
North Atlantic tonnes 1,442.6 -42.1 30,642.3 127.4
Asia tonnes 5,934.0 -9.2 57,440.9 37.6
Domestic tonnes 34.4 5.3 360.4 3.2
Cargo scheduled traffic 10,772.2 4.4 113,656.8 88.7
total tonnes
Cargo flights tonnes** 26.1 -99.3 9,062.2 -79.8
Cargo Traffic tonnes 10,798.3 -24.2 122,719.0 16.9
total
Available tonne 115.6 -19.2 1,281.8 30.6
kilometres* mill
Revenue tonne kilometres 66.7 -34.8 788.4 2.2
mill
Available sched. cargo 115.3 7.1 1,192.4 108.6
tonne kms* mill
Revenue sched. cargo 66.5 -8.7 720.2 67.0
tonne kms mill
Cargo load factor* % 57.7 -13.8p 61.5 -17.1p
- North-Atlantic cargo 53.1 -12.1p 56.6 -14.0p
load factor* %
- Asia cargo load 62.3 -12.4p 71.7 -11.3p
factor* %
Scheduled traffic cargo 57.7 -10.0p 60.4 -15.0p
load factor* %

* Based on average operational cargo capacity

** 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 kilometres flown.
• Revenue passenger kilometres. RPK: Number of revenue passengers carried multiplied by kilometres flown.
• Passenger load factor: Share of revenue passenger kilometres of available seat kilometres.
• Available tonne kilometres. ATK: Number of tonnes of capacity for carriage of passengers, cargo and mail multiplied by kilometres flown.
• Revenue tonne kilometres. RTK: Total revenue load consisting of passengers, cargo and mail multiplied by kilometres flown.
• Overall load factor: Share of revenue tonne kilometres of available tonne kilometres.