06.07.2012

Number of air passengers continues to be at the record level, but the growth is slowing down

The number of passengers at Finavia airports continued to grow during the first half of 2012. The number of air passengers increased by 4.2% from the corresponding time period last year (an increase of more than 390,371 passengers). However, the uncertainty in the economy is already manifested in the numbers as there was a slight decline in the number of passengers in May and June.

In January-June, there was a total of 9.8 million passengers at Finavia's 25 airports, of which domestic passengers accounted for 31.2% and international 68.8%.

Domestic air traffic clearly increased during the first half of the year to 3.1 million passengers, i.e. about 7.9% compared to the corresponding period in the previous year. The number of passengers in domestic traffic increased by as much as 21% during Q1 of the year, but decreased by 4.9% on Q2.

"The development in the route offering of provincial airports contributed to the increase in the number of passengers. In the spring, new routes were introduced from Oulu Airport to Stockholm and Copenhagen, and since the spring, a direct connection has been available from Turku Airport to London. This was manifested in the fact that the passenger volume in Oulu increased to 580,932 passengers (+24%) and to 234,004 in Turku (+21.9%). Vaasa Airport also had strong growth and the increase was 15.8%, to 198,514 passengers," says Kimmo Ruotsalainen, Marketing Director of Finavia.

In international air traffic, the passenger volumes of Finavia airports increased by 2.5% from the comparison period. The total number of passengers was 6.7 million.

The number of passengers on the rise at Helsinki Airport

The number of passengers are Helsinki Airport increased to a total of 7.5 million (+2.9%) in January-June. The number of international passengers was 6.0 million (+1.8%) and 1.5 million (+7.8%) in domestic traffic. Growth was boosted by Asian traffic, by 884,345 passengers (+9.7%). Finnair's new route from Helsinki Airport to Chongqing in China was introduced in May and it is the 11th direct route to Asia.

"Helsinki Airport is the leading transit airport in Northern Europe in Asian air traffic in particular and on Q1, we continued to retain our position well in relation to other transit airports in Northern Europe. We continued our contribution to improve the service level and comfort at Helsinki Airport, and examples of this include the expansion of the Art Port gallery family and the development of the design security check of Terminal 1 in cooperation with passengers," says Ruotsalainen.

The uncertain global economy affects the outlook of air traffic

The increase in the number of passengers of Finavia airports slowed down after Q1 and started a slight decline in May-June. The challenging situation of the global economy is the biggest uncertainty for air traffic development.

"Airlines are adjusting their operations to meet the global financial situation and demand. Due to the tighter competition and increasing cost pressure, airlines reduce their capacity and their goal is to have planes full of passengers. At Helsinki Airport, for example, the number of operations decreased by about 10% in June even though the number of passengers simultaneously increased by about 2.9%. The outlook for the rest of the year is quite uncertain," says Mr. Ruotsalainen.

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