THE FINNAIR GROUP continued its impressive performance improvement in the six months to the end of September.
Compared to the same first-half period of 1994, Finnair made a FIM462 million ($110 million) profit before reserves and taxes, against FIM298 million. Turnover increased by 7.7% to FIM3.6 billion, while operating costs went up by only 5.5%.
Above-average traffic growth on its European network and stronger demand for business travel were the main contributors to the better-than-expected first-half result, but the airline cautions that seasonal fluctuations and exchange-rate variations may affect performance in the second period of the year.
Finnair president Antti Potila also warns that further efforts will be required to strengthen the company's financial position, by maintaining cost levels and continuing productivity-enhancement efforts.
A future capital injection, in part to finance new aircraft, has not been ruled out. Renewal of the fleet has been identified as a priority and is initially centred on replacing its 17 McDonnell Douglas DC-9-41s and -51s with second-hand MD-80s. Five DC-9s have already been sold and will be leaving the fleet during this financial year, to be replaced by seven MD-80s, now operated by Transwede, Balair/CTA and Centenniel Airlines.
Source: Flight International
