In the first quarter of 2023, Finnair reported a decrease in net sales by 1.9 percent compared to the same period last year, with a total of 681.5 million euros. Despite this, the operating result showed a loss of 1.6 million euros, more than double the loss from the previous year. Finnair attributed this loss to political strikes that impacted turnover and profit.
The number of passengers carried by Finnair in the first quarter was 2.5 million, a decrease of 100,000 passengers compared to the previous year. However, despite this decrease in passengers, Finnair reported that passenger kilometers offered increased by 4.4 percent and passenger occupancy rate decreased by three percentage points to 72.1 percent. The company noted that on flights to Thailand, utilization rates were particularly strong due to high demand for travel to Asia and Europe.
Finnair plans to increase its total capacity by over 10 percent in 2024 by focusing on growth in Asia and Europe where international air traffic is expected to continue growing. However, risks such as inflation, increased interest rates, and international conflicts could impact demand for air travel and cargo in these regions.
Despite challenges faced in the first quarter, Finnair emphasized success in cost savings and efficient pricing of airline tickets through changes made to its loyalty program and ticketing system which improved customer satisfaction levels significantly according CEO Jaakko Schildt who stated that “the decrease in turnover was largely due to normalized ticket revenue and lower freight prices.”