- Total passenger volume for the first half of the year grew by 4.1% compared to the corresponding period in 2015
- Revenues increased by 8.3% due to positive traffic development and the development of commercial services
- Development and investment programmes continued at Helsinki Airport and network airports
- Investments totalled EUR 81.7 million (Q1-Q2/2015: 59.8)
- Operating result excluding non-recurring items was EUR 23.9 million (Q1-Q2/2015: 23.4)
- Operating cash flow increased to EUR 41.9 million (Q1-Q2/2015: 33.9) due to volume growth and improved operational efficiency
The Group’s key indicators
CEO Kari Savolainen:
”Finavia’s airports saw good passenger development during the first half of the year. International travel continued to develop positively here in Finland as well as elsewhere in Europe, as expected. Domestic air traffic strengthened especially due to the increased traffic in Lapland. At Helsinki Airport, the growth in leisure travel from network airports to international flights departing from Helsinki has also increased passenger volumes.
The positive passenger development of the first half of the year yielded good growth in Finavia’s revenues, which were further boosted by the strong growth of Finavia’s subsidiary Airpro. The operating result for the first half of the year remained at the same level as last year.
Our main goal is to maintain Helsinki Airport’s position as one of Europe’s leading transit airports. Our focus is on carrying out the ongoing sizeable investment at the airport. The EUR 900 million investment programme allows us to develop air traffic and enables Helsinki Airport to thrive in the tightening competition against Europe’s big airports. The expanding airport improves the entire Finland’s accessibility to a new level, as increasing traffic allows Finns to take advantage of new routes to different parts of the world.
The success of Helsinki Airport plays a major role in the whole country’s air traffic. Success in international competition gives us the possibility to offer competitive services to air traffic around Finland. We have continued our intensive investment programme in the Airport Network, with the biggest efforts during the past summer season relating to runway surfacing at Rovaniemi airport.
We anticipate positive traffic development at Finavia’s airports during the remainder of the year. This development is supported by upcoming new long distance routes as well as the launching of new connections to Lapland. However, passenger development varies strongly on our different airports, with some experiencing growth and others continuing to lose passengers to other forms of transport. Possible security threats in popular destinations may also have an impact on traffic development.
We estimate our revenues in 2016 to be clearly higher than last year, with positive effects mainly deriving from good passenger development. Our operating result excluding non-recurring items is influenced particularly by growing depreciations stemming from investments, which is why the operating result excluding non-recurring items is estimated to remain somewhat below last year’s level.”
