Kevin O'Toole/LONDON
Finnair saw profits more than double over the first half of its financial year, making it the latest northern European airline to benefit from a passenger boom which has already contributed to record results for Lufthansa and gains at SAS over the latest quarter.
Finnair posted pre-tax profits of FIM572 million ($110 million)for the six months to September, beating the full-year profit for 1996/7 and putting the carrier on course for record annual results. Although the second half is traditionally less buoyant, Finnair says that the year-end result will be "substantially better".
The results were backed by an 11% growth in passenger traffic and a 24% boom in cargo over the half. That included strong growth from Finnair's aggressive push into the neighbouring Swedish market in the wake of the rival SAS/ Lufthansa alliance. Finnair says that its new European services from Stockholm are already carrying as many passengers as other services between Finland and Sweden.
Finnair itself is in talks over co-operation with British Airways, which it confirms is with a view to linking in to its global network.
The Finnish results are only the latest in a series of strong performance figures to emerge from northern Europe.
New figures from the Association of European Airlines show that, in the year through to October, passenger traffic for its members had grown by almost 10% across the board. Load factors have edged up to over 73%.
Lufthansa, which had earlier posted record profits for its September quarter, is showing a 13.5% growth in mainline passenger traffic for the year through to October and load factors of 73%.
While the healthy growth, combined with continuing cost-cutting plans, has produced a surge in profits, Lufthansa has come in for high-profile criticism over passenger dissatisfaction at the levels of overbooking and ground service. Lufthansa's policy of overbooking flights by up to 15% has made headlines in Germany. On one day, 300 passengers were stranded at Frankfurt - leading to an assault on one of the airline's ground staff.
Roland Stein, chairman of the group's works council blames Lufthansa's "unrestrained" cost-cutting policy and lack of personnel planning for the troubles. In direct response, the airline plans to employ 100 more staff to handle passengers at Frankfurt, and 40-50 at its second hub in Munich.
Source: Flight International
