Finnair's scheduled traffic increased by 20.9% compared to March 2006 of which Asian traffic grew by a mammoth 40.1%. The passenger load factor was 74.4%, up 4.4 percentage points, while the number of passengers carried increased by 3.5% to 727,066.

The group's traffic, measured in passenger kilometers, increased by 13.7% in March, while the capacity was up by 9.3%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 77.8% or 3 points higher than last year. Overall, all Finnair Group airlines transported 833,205 passengers, which is 2.9% more than a year ago.

Unit revenues, based on revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), decreased by 2% because of the traffic mix with more long haul traffic.

Finnair's Tallinn-based subsidiary Aero AS, carried 20,766 passengers (- 72.4%) on routes between Helsinki and the Baltic capitals and within Southern Finland. During March, Stockholm-based FlyNordic carried 98,079 passengers (- 8%).

Arrival punctuality of scheduled flights was 82.5% (based on a fifteen minute standard), 0.3 points higher than in March 2006. Including leisure flights arrival punctuality was 80.8% (0.9 p.p).

Scheduled Traffic

In scheduled traffic (international + domestic) revenue passenger kilometres increased by 20.9%. The change in capacity was 13.7% while the passenger load factor was 74.4%, 4.4 percentage points higher than last year.

In scheduled international traffic, the total number of passengers was up by 10.8%. Capacity in ASKs was 18.2%, while RPKs increased by 24.6%.

In European scheduled traffic, ASKs increased by 8%, and as RPKs increased by 13.5%, the passenger load factor was 67.5%, up 3.3 points from previous year.

In North Atlantic scheduled traffic, capacity decreased by 11.2%. Change in RPKs was - 6.6%, and the passenger load factor for March was 86.1%, 4.2 points higher than previous year.

In Asian scheduled traffic, capacity increase was 34.5%, while passenger traffic was up by 40.1%. Passenger load factor was 81.9%, an increase of 3.3 percentage points.

Domestic scheduled traffic decreased by 5.3% on a capacity decrease of 12.8%. Passenger load factor increased by 5.2 pecentage points to 65.1%.

Leisure Traffic

ASKs for leisure traffic decreased in March by 2.1%, and RPKs decreased by 1.5%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 88.4%, 0.6 points higher than last year.

Cargo

Cargo traffic decreased by 5.6% in terms of cargo tonnes carried. Decrease in scheduled traffic was 0.7%. Increase in Asian traffic was 13.8%. Volume in European traffic decreased by 20.0%. In North-Atlantic traffic cargo volume decreased by 10.2%. Cargo traffic carried on chartered argo flights decreased by 37.3%. The cargo load factor was 45.7%. The cargo load factor in the Far Eastern traffic was 56.6% and in the North Atlantic traffic 80.4%.