FINNAIR’S BUSINESS CLASS DEMAND STRENGTHENS IN ASIAN TRAFFIC

(Warsaw 21.1.2010) In 2009, Finnair carried more than 7.4 million passengers on its scheduled and leisure flights. Scheduled traffic declined by nearly nine percent compared to the previous year. Business class passenger numbers fell by a couple of per cent, but grew in December by 16 per cent, despite scheduled traffic capacity cuts. Number of business class passengers from Poland increased in 2009 by 11.7 %.

Passenger numbers in Finnair scheduled traffic were more than nine per cent lower in 2009. Due to a more than ten per cent capacity cut, however, the passenger load factor rose by more than one percentage point to over 73 per cent. In December the fall in scheduled traffic demand levelled off, scheduled traffic declining by four per cent.

Last year, more than 1.1 million passengers travelled on Finnair's Asian flights. The Asian traffic declined over the full year by nearly ten per cent and in December by less than four per cent. Business class demand in Asian traffic is however growing and the number of business class passengers in Asian traffic increased in December by one quarter.

In Poland the number of Finnair passengers decreased in 2009 by approximately 10 %. However, during the last quarter of the year the value of tickets sold in Poland exceeded that of the corresponding period in 2008.

“The last quarter sales numbers indicate a recovery in the market”, says Juhani Nuoramo, Finnair’s Sales Director for Poland. “Also, the number of Finnair business class passengers from Poland increased in 2009 by 11.7 % compared to the previous year. In the last quarter alone this increase was almost 49 %.”

“The growth was particularly strong in business class travel from Poland to Far East Asia”, Mr. Nuoramo continues. “In this I believe we benefitted from our competitive pricing and the fact that Finnair has the fastest connections from Warsaw to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Seoul.”

               

Finnair is one of Europe’s most punctual network airlines. For the full year, the arrival punctuality of Finnair’s scheduled flights was 87 per cent.

For more information, please contact:

Radoslaw Podhorecki tel. +48-601-370 178 or +48 22 657 00 17

Christer Haglund, SVP Corporate Communications, tel. +358 9 818 4007

Finnair Media Desk tel. +358 9 818 4020 or media.desk@finnair.com

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Finnair Group website www.finnairgroup.com

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