11.06.2009

The popularity of low-cost airlines has increased in Finland during the past year

The low-cost carrier segment, the LCC segment, is one of the few to have increased in air traffic over the past 12 months in Finland. Growth during the year has been 12%. Furthermore, a record number of passengers were carried by low-cost airlines.

Last month, a total of 75,600 passengers travelled with LCC airlines, which is a record for a single month. Growth in passenger numbers, as a 12-month average, was 16.3% and 22% in operations.
 
?Passengers, including business passengers, are becoming increasingly cost conscious when booking trips. In addition, the supply of low-cost prices has increased and is encouraging people to travel,? says Finavia?s Business Development Manager Kimmo Holopainen.
 
The interest of low-cost airlines towards Finland is expected to continue in the future, and it is estimated that the market share of low-cost airlines on internal European routes will continue to grow in the future.
 
?The recession may, in fact, boost the number of short-haul flights, such as weekend trips, since passengers are searching for good offers on hotels and shopping trips,? says Holopainen.
 
The customer age range of low-cost airlines is broad and, for example, businessmen as well as students use low-cost airlines. Low-cost airlines also fly in a lot of visitors to Finland, which boosts foreign tourism to Finland, which is important for the country.
 
Europe?s three largest low-cost airlines fly to Finland: Ryanair, easyJet and Air Berlin. In Finland, low-cost airlines have operations in Helsinki, Tampere and Turku.
 
Services from Helsinki: Air Lingus to Dublin; Air Berlin to Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Berlin; easyJet to London Gatwick.
 
Services from Tampere: Ryanair to London Stansted, Dublin, Milan Bergamo, Frankfurt Hahn, Bremen and Riga.
 
Services from Turku: Wizz Air to Gdansk.

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