Source: Reuters Author: 06/09/2009
Subject Concerned: Airlines Cargo
Finnish national carrier Finnair said demand continued to slide in May, but an 11 percent fall in passenger numbers was more than offset by a cut in capacity, meaning planes were fuller than a year ago.
Finnair said on June 9 that its passenger load factor, a measure of seats sold, rose 4.2 percentage points in May year-on-year. Cargo volumes sank 28 percent.
"We have succeeded in adjusting capacity better than last year. There is still space on aircraft, however, and flight ticket prices are low," the company said in a statement.
"Unit revenue for scheduled passenger traffic has continued to fall steeply throughout the early part of the year," it said.
Finnair said due to the weak demand, it had cut capacity by more than a quarter in domestic traffic, by a fifth in leisure traffic, and by a sixth on Asian routes.