YTD, Finavia’s Airports struggled to drive international traffic, including scheduled and chartered services, posting a disappointing increase of just +0.3% YOY to 6.8m.

 

However, in the first quarter, traffic on routes to China grew strongly (+15.8%). Growth was also significant on routes to India (9.6%), Hong Kong (9.0%), Spain (9.2%), France (14.4%) and Turkey (24.9%). Although Thailand (-12.5%) as well as some other European destinations suffered.

 

Finavia, the former Finnish Civil Aviation Administration, manages 25 airports in Finland with an annual revenue of €359m (figure from 2012). According to the organisation, Helsinki Airport is the ‘leading Northern European transit airport for long-haul traffic’.

 

In the first quarter of 2013, Finavia’s airports served a total of 9.4m passengers (9.8m in 1−6/2012). Total passenger volume decreased by 4.4% compared to January–June 2012.

 

The speed at which passenger volume decreased slowed down during the second quarter and was 1.7% when compared with the same time previous year.

 

[Above: Helsinki Airport]

 

HELSINKI AIRPORT

In the second quarter of this year, Finavia reports that international travel picked up and transit traffic through the Helsinki Airport showed strong positive development. Domestic air travel continued its steep decline.

 

Passenger volume at the Helsinki Airport remained at the previous year’s level at 7.5m passengers. International transit traffic increased by 4.7% compared with the same period in previous year. However, in the second quarter, growth was as much as 6.6% from the same period in 2012.

 

“The strong position of the Helsinki Airport in transit traffic is key to the whole air traffic in Finland and comprehensive connections to Europe,” says Joni Sundelin, Director of Airport Networks, Marketing and Sales at Finavia.

 

“We are extremely satisfied with the positive development of Asian and transit traffic especially in the second quarter. New routes, such as Finnair’s routes to Hanoi in Vietnam and Xi’an in China, support Helsinki Airport’s status as the leading transit airport in northern Europe.”

Passenger volume on domestic flights decreased very rapidly in the first half of the year with the decline being 14.6%. The overall number of passengers was 2.6m.

 

DECLINE IN DOMESTIC TRAFFIC

“Unfortunately, the decline in domestic travel has continued all through the beginning of the year and was almost 11% even in the second quarter.

 

“Even though the decline has evened out somewhat, domestic passenger volume has not developed as expected. It does not seem likely that we will see considerable growth in domestic passenger volume in the long run either and it is likely that passenger volume will remain very low in many places,” says Sundelin.

 

In provincial airports, the passenger volume including both domestic and international traffic grew slightly only in Rovaniemi (4.4%) and Ivalo (2.2%) during the first part of the year. When compared to first quarter of 2012, passenger volume declined steeply in Turku (-30.3%), Pori (-26.3%), Oulu (-26.1%) and Jyväskylä (-25.4%).

 

“Passenger volume of transit traffic and international traffic developed as expected in the first part of the year and we expect them to keep on growing in the latter part of the year,”adds Sundelin.

 

“Due to the positive development of transit traffic and international traffic, we estimate that as a whole the passenger volume at Finavia’s airports in the latter part of the year will remain at the same level as the corresponding period of time in 2012.”