By IANS,
New Delhi : Despite the global meltdown, Nordic carrier Finnair’s Asian traffic grew 18.1 percent compared to October of the previous year – though business travel declined, the airline said Thursday.
The number of passengers carried on Finnair’s Asian flights in October was 124,289, for a load factor of 82.9 percent or 1.3 percentage points up, an airline statement said.
“Finnair increased its capacity and succeeded to fill the aircraft in a quiet market situation, but due to the world’s financial crisis the amount of business travel decreased,” the statement added.
The load factor of leisure travellers increased by 1.0 percentage points to 84.2 percent compared to the previous year, the airline said.
Overall, Finnair traffic increased 11.7 percent in October, while capacity was up 9.2 percent. This translated into a passenger load factor of 78.2 percent or 1.7 points higher than last year.
Totally, Finnair transported 751,916 passengers in October, 4.8 percent more than a year ago.
However, cargo traffic decreased by 4.5 percent in October in terms of cargo tonnes carried, the airline said.
Finnair Nov 1 completed 85 years of service, making it one of the world’s oldest continuously operating airlines. Founded under the name Aero in 1923, the airline’s first flight took place a year later when an aircraft flew 162 kg of mail to Estonian capital Tallinn from Helsinki’s Katajanokka aerodrome.
Now, with its modern fleet and direct flights, Finnair carries millions of passengers and tonnes of cargo to more than 120 destinations around the world.