Finnair traffic perks up in April
After a rocky first quarter, spring seems to be bringing green shoots of growth for Finland’s national airline.
After posting disappointing first-quarter results earlier in the week, Finnair on Friday reported somewhat better news about its performance in April.
The flag carrier said passenger traffic was up by 4.2 percent, although overall capacity edged down by half a percentage point compared with a year earlier.
However capacity on Finnair’s all-important Asian routes rose by 0.5 percent while traffic was up by increased by 4.5 percent on an annual basis.
European traffic did much better, with revenue passenger kilometres up by nearly 17 per cent and capacity by 9.5 percent year-on-year.
Charter flights slump
The national airline’s leisure-flight business slumped, though, with passenger-kilometres plunging by almost 44 percent and capacity by 46 percent.
Finnair Cargo saw its traffic increase by more than four percent although capacity dropped compared to last April.
Finnair says that just over 93 percent of its flights were on time in April.
Two days earlier, Finnair issued Q1 results showing losses of 34 million euros. Turnover slipped to 543 million euros, down by 50 million euros from the beginning of 2013.
Canada: Two of Canada’s northern airlines plan merger, CBC News
Finland: Finnair descends into loss, Yle News
Greenland: Air Greenland nixes helicopter order , Eye on the Arctic
Iceland: Porter Airlines signs deal with Icelandair, The Canadian Press
Sweden:Developing quieter supersonic airliners in Sweden’s Arctic, Radio Sweden
United States:World’s largest blimp headed for Alaska, Alaska Dispatch
