15 MILLION AIR PASSENGERS
The past year has witnessed record numbers of air passengers, with more than 15 million of them passing through CAA airports for the first time in its history during 2005. This was 4 per cent more than in 2004. Another million barrier was broken in 2005, when Helsinki- Vantaa Airport catered for more than 11 million passengers for the first time. This was a growth of 4 per cent over the previous year. The figures are for departing, arriving and transit passengers.
International traffic was particularly brisk during the review year, with 7 per cent more passengers than during 2004, which was higher than the European average. Domestic traffic, however, was calmer than the year before. Passenger numbers declined by 4–5 per cent at the beginning of the year, though they picked up towards the end of the year. In the end there were only 2 per cent fewer passengers on domestic flights than during the year before.
In terms of passenger numbers, the busiest airports after Helsinki-Vantaa were Oulu, Tampere- Pirkkala and Rovaniemi. Oulu Airport recorded more than 800 000 for the first time, whilst Tampere-Pirkkala came close to the 600 000 passenger milestone for its first time. Besides these, Kuopio also exceeded the 300 000 mark for the first time.
Passenger volumes at Tampere-Pirkkala were 20 per cent higher than in the previous year. The next highest growth took place at Vaasa (+14 %), Kuopio (+6 %) and Pori (+6 %) airports. The sharpest declines in numbers occurred at Savonlinna (-32 %), Varkaus (-24 %) and Mariehamn airports (-19 %).
BUSY TIMES FOR AIR TRAFFIC
Competition remained lively, particularly for international traffic, which was evident in the consumerfriendly pricing. Changes continued in the air transport market and companies moved towards ever greater use of one-way fare structures, whilst partially relinquishing their traditional return-fare regulations.
A new airline called Nordic Solutions began scheduled flights between Helsinki-Vantaa and Mariehamn, whilst Sun-Air opened its new Billund–Helsinki–Billund service. AirÅland acts as the marketing company for Nordic Solutions’ transport, with an operating model that is new to Finland. AirÅland itself owns neither aircraft nor an operating licence, its flights instead being operated by Nordic Solutions Air Services. Sun- Air’s daily flights particularly serve business passengers to Asia but they also carry Finnish holiday passengers to Denmark.
New routes were also opened, the most significant being Finnair’s flights from Helsinki to Canton. A newcomer in Finnish charter traffic was Britannia Airways, which began fl ying from Helsinki to a number of charter destinations and which stationed its own plane at Helsinki-Vantaa.
There was positive development in international scheduled traffic from the country’s regional airports during the year, and even new routes were opened: Oulu and Vaasa both began scheduled flights to Copenhagen.
KOTIMAAN LIIKENTEEN MATKUSTAJIEN KOHTEET 2005 KANSAINVÄLISEN LIIKENTEEN MATKUSTAJIEN KOHTEET 2005 I KANSAINVÄLISEN LIIKENTEEN MATKUSTAJIEN KOHTEET 2005 II KOTIMAAN LIIKENNE 1995–2005 HELSINKI-VANTAAN LENTOASEMAN MATKUSTAJAT 1995–2005 YLILENNOT 1995–2005 MATKUSTAJAT 1995–2005 LENTOASEMIEN MATKUSTAJAT 2004–2005 LENNOT 1995–2005 KANSAINVÄLINEN LIIKENNE 1995–2005 LENTOASEMIEN MATKUSTAJAT 2004–2005 TAVARALIIKENNE 1995–2005