12.04.2012

Air travel through Finavia airports increasing

In the first quarter of 2012, the number of passengers at Finavia airports increased to nearly five million. The figure was 10.4% higher than that of the first quarter of the previous year. The increase was the result of better occupancy rates and the growing range of routes.

In the first quarter of 2012, a total of 4,786,514 travellers passed through Finavia airports. Domestic traffic increased by 21 per cent, reaching a total of 1,688,861 travellers. The total number of international passengers was 3,097,653 (an increase of 5.3%).

The number of travellers at Helsinki Airport was 3.6 million – 9.2 per cent more than in the comparable period.

Of the total, 2.8 million (an increase of 6%) were international travellers and 833,312 (an increase of 21.3%) domestic passengers. The number of transit passengers at the Helsinki Airport increased by 5.3 per cent compared to the comparable period, totalling 535,969. International transit travel makes up around 30 per cent of the number of departing passengers at Helsinki Airport. Transit passengers are travellers who change flights at the Helsinki Airport, mostly travelling between Asia and Europe.

At Oulu Airport, the number of passengers increased by 41 per cent and was 283,291 in the first quarter of the year. At the end of March, Oulu Airport achieved for the first time the milestone of one million passengers within a period of 12 months.

The number of passengers at Lapland Airports (Enontekiö, Ivalo, Kemi-Tornio, Kittilä, Kuusamo, Rovaniemi) increased by 15 per cent from the comparable period; in the first quarter of 2012, 327,538 travellers passed through Lapland Airports.

”The number of travellers at Finavia airports has seen a considerable increase in early 2012, even though the number of flights has remained the same. Increases are for the large part due to better occupancy rates on many routes. New routes have also brought in new travellers in Northern Finland, for example. However, we expect that Finnish airports have now seen their strongest period of growth, and the development will be more moderate in the rest of the year,” says Director Kimmo Ruotsalainen of Finavia.

"To ensure the continued availability of a wide range of international connections for Finnish travellers, Helsinki Airport's position as a transit airport must be maintained. In the current year, we have managed to hold our own in relation to other transit airports in Northern Europe. We continue to invest in the smooth and cost-efficient services that we provide for air traffic operators," Ruotsalainen says.

Last year, the most important international destinations for scheduled flights from Finland were Germany, Sweden and Great Britain. Japan, China and Thailand were the most important long-haul destinations. In Asia, Singapore is the most recently introduced destination. Greece and Spain were the most popular holiday flight destinations in Europe.

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