Finnair: Svakere kabinfaktor i oktober

[MD90]

HELSINKI, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Finland's national carrier Finnair said on Wednesday passenger numbers rose in October versus the year-earlier period, driven by European routes, but capacity usage fell.

"All Finnair Group airlines altogether transported 706,500 passengers, which is 9.9 percent more than a year ago," Finnair said in a statement.

The greatest increase in passenger numbers came in Europe with a 22 percent jump year-on-year, followed by Asia at 13.1 percent. The figures fell on domestic routes and in North America, the effect of cutting flights to New York's JFK airport to 5 from 7 flights a week due to a seasonal fall in demand. The passenger load factor, a measure of capacity use, slipped 0.6 percentage points to 69.8 percent.

Like other airlines Finnair has this year been hit by high fuel prices as oil went above $50 a barrel, an all-time high, leading the airline to say in August it will make a full-year
loss, having previously forecast a profit.

Scandinavian rival SAS reported on Monday a 7.7 percent rise in passenger numbers for October but said competition and overcapacity in the industry led it to a cautious outlook on earnings.

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[The Ticketor]

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FINNAIR OYJ STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE 10 NOVEMBER 2004 AT 09:00

FINNAIR TRAFFIC GREW BY OVER TEN PERCENT

Finnair traffic, measured in passenger kilometers, summing increased
by 10.6% in October, while the capacity was up by 11.6%, resulting in
a passenger load factor of 69.8%, 0.6 points lower than last year. All
Finnair Group airlines altogether transported 706,500 passengers,
which is 9.9% more than a year ago.

Finnair scheduled traffic increased by 7.2% compared to October last
year. Passenger load factor was 64.5%, down 1.4 percentage points.
Number of passengers carried was 566,700, up 9.2%.

Departure punctuality of scheduled flights was 89.1% (based on a
fifteen minute standard), 3.7 points lower than in October 2003.
Temporary deterioration was caused by implementation of a new air
traffic control system. Including leisure flights departure
punctuality was 87.9% (-3.8 p.p). Arrival punctuality of scheduled
flights was 89.6% and that of all operations was 87.9%. According to
the punctuality data of the Association of European Airlines (AEA), in
January-August Finnair was the most punctual airline and one of the
airlines with least cancellations.

Finnair's Tallinn-based subsidiary Aero AS, carried 9,900 passengers (-
8.3%) on Tallinn-Helsinki route. During October, Stockholm-based
flynordic (former Nordic Airlink) continued to gain market share and
carried a record 73,400 passengers on its Scandinavian routes.



Scheduled traffic
· In scheduled traffic (international + domestic) revenue passenger
kilometres increased by 7.2%. The change in capacity was +9.6%.
Passenger load factor was 64.5%, 1.4 percentage points lower than last
year.

· In scheduled international traffic, total number of passengers
was up by 19.4%, partly affected by adding Nordic Airlink figures.
Capacity in ASKs was +11.8%, while RPKs increased by 8.8%.

-In European scheduled traffic, ASKs increased by 14.7%, and as
RPKs increased by 8.1%, the passenger load factor was 54.7%, down
3.3 points from previous year.

-In North Atlantic scheduled traffic, capacity decreased by 26.1%
due to changing JFK frequency from 7 to 5 flights a week. Change
in RPKs was -12.9%, and passenger load factor for October was
79.5%, 12.0 points higher than previous year.

-In Asian scheduled traffic, capacity increase was 18.7% mainly
due to adding frequencies to Shanghai and Osaka since beginning
of June. The passenger traffic was up by 14.7%. Passenger load
factor was 80.4%, 2.8 percentage points down. During the first
ten months of the year, Finnair transported over half million
passengers on its Asian flights.

· Domestic scheduled traffic decreased by 6.3% on a capacity
decrease of 4.8%. Passenger load factor declined by 0.8 percentage
points to 50.6%.


Leisure traffic

· ASKs for leisure traffic increased in October by 16.6%, and RPKs
increased by 17.5%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 82.5%, 0.6
points higher than last year.

Cargo

· Cargo traffic increased by 9.8% in terms of cargo tonnes carried.
Growth in scheduled traffic was +0.3%. Increase in Asian traffic was
10.9%. Volume in European traffic decreased by 5.5%. In North-Atlantic
traffic cargo volume decreased by 14.0%. Cargo traffic carried on
chartered cargo flights increased by 123.3%. The cargo load factor was
65.7%. The cargo load factor in the Far Eastern traffic was 82.4% and
in the North Atlantic traffic 87.3%.

AIR TRAFFIC DURING OCTOBER 2004 AND FINANCIAL YEAR 2004

Oct 04 %- Jan04- %-CHANGE
CHANGE Oct04
TOTAL TRAFFIC
Passengers 1000 706,5 9,9 6 747,8 17,8
Available seat-kilometres mill 1 950,4 11,6 17 937,4 17,1
Revenue passenger kilometres mill 1 360,6 10,6 12 803,4 20,8
Passenger load factor % 69,8 -0,6 p 71,4 2,2 p
Cargo tonnes toatal 7 862,3 9,8 71 052,0 19,6
Available tonne-kilometres mill 278,5 12,2 2 603,0 20,4
Revenue tonne-kilometres mill 157,5 11,3 1 470,3 23,1
Overall load factor % 56,6 -0,5 p 56,5 1,2 p

SCHEDULED TOTAL
Passengers 1000 566,7 9,2 5 589,8 20,3
Available seat-kilometres mill 1 382,6 9,6 13 522,7 21,2
Revenue passenger kilometres mill 892,2 7,2 8 859,2 28,3
Passenger load factor % 64,5 -1,4 p 65,5 3,6 p

EUROPE
Passengers 1000 319,4 22,0 3 019,3 27,0
Available seat-kilometres mill 665,5 14,7 6 242,6 15,5
Revenue passenger kilometres mill 363,9 8,1 3 608,0 17,5
Passenger load factor % 54,7 -3,3 p 57,8 1,0 p

NORTH ATLANTIC
Passengers 1000 10,3 -11,1 135,0 13,7
Available seat-kilometres mill 85,4 -26,1 1 101,1 2,3
Revenue passenger kilometres mill 67,9 -12,9 913,6 16,2
Passenger load factor % 79,5 12,0 p 83,0 10,0 p

ASIA
Passengers 1000 57,6 13,1 509,6 52,0
Available seat-kilometres mill 472,4 18,7 4 466,0 48,9
Revenue passenger kilometres mill 379,9 14,7 3 382,1 56,1
Passenger load factor % 80,4 -2,8 p 75,7 3,5 p

DOMESTIC
Passengers 1000 179,3 -7,8 1 925,9 6,0
Available seat-kilometres mill 159,3 -4,8 1 713,1 2,1
Revenue pax-kilometres mill 80,6 -6,3 955,5 8,4
Passenger load factor % 50,6 -0,8 p 55,8 3,3 p

LEISURE TRAFFIC
Passengers 1000 139,9 12,8 1 158,0 7,1
Available seat-kilometres mill 567,8 16,6 4 414,7 6,1
Revenue passenger kilometres mill 468,4 17,5 3 944,2 6,9
Passenger load factor % 82,5 0,6 p 89,3 0,7 p

CARGO TRAFFIC
Cargo scheduled traffic total 6 596,7 0,3 61 231,4 16,9
tonnes
Europe tonnes 2 323,2 -5,5 21 707,6 3,1
North Atlantic tonnes 638,4 -14,0 6 518,2 -0,4
Asia tonnes 3 239,5 10,9 29 299,9 41,3
Domestic tonnes 395,6 -12,9 3 705,7 -8,2
Cargo leisure traffic tonnes 40,8 20,2 368,0 -26,1
Scheduled cargo charter tonnes 1 224,7 123,3 9 452,7 44,6
Cargo tonnes total 7 862,3 9,8 71 052,0 19,6
Available tonne-kilometres* mill 60,4 18,7 569,2 29,0
Revenue tonne-kilometres mill 36,2 13,5 328,3 30,7
Cargo load factor* % 60,0 -2,7 p 57,7 0,8 p


p= percentage points
Definitions to the terms used:
Change % refers to the change of the figures of the previous year
Revenue passenger kilometres: Number of revenue passengers
carried,multiplied by kilometres flown.
Available passenger kilometres: Total number of seats available,
multiplied by the number of kilometres flown.
Available tonne kilometres: Number of tonnes of capacity for carriage
of passengers, cargo and mail, multiplies by kilometres flown.
Cabin factor: Share of revenue passenger kilometres of available
passenger kilometres.
Overall load factor: Share of revenue tonne kilometres of available
tonne kilometres.

Next release on traffic statistics will be released on 8 December
2004.

Finnair Oyj
Communications
November 10, 2004

Taneli Hassinen
Communications Officer, IR
Tel. +358 9 818 4976

For further information please contact:

Mr. Christer Haglund, SVP Corporate Communications, tel. +358 8184007
Mr. Petteri Kostermaa, VP Traffic Planning, tel. +358 9 8188504
Mr. Timo Riihimäki, Assistant VP, Cargo, tel. +358 9 8185487