LEISURE TRAFFIC'S MARKET LEADERS OFFER ADVENTURE
Aurinkomatkat-Suntours and Finnair Leisure Flights form a strong combination in the Finnish tourism market. As far as leisure trips are concerned, Finns are accustomed to putting their trust in Finnish service. Aurinkomatkat-Suntours is the market leader in package tour production and Finnair Leisure Flights provides transport for customers of Aurinkomatkat and other tour operators to and from their holiday destinations. The Leisure Traffic division's high brand awareness in the domestic market creates a strong foundation for future development in Finland and in neighbouring countries.
The number of leisure trips made by flying remained almost at the previous year's level in 2003. A slight increase had originally been forecast for last year. The leisure travel market, however, contracted by one per cent. Demand for air transport, which was otherwise severely affected by the war in Iraq and SARS did not reduce leisure travel significantly, but the holiday destinations were different.
Aurinkomatkat-Suntours
Last year Aurinkomatkat-Suntours celebrated the 40th anniversary of its founding. Since 1963 this Finnish tour operator has arranged for Finns new travel experiences to sun-drenched beaches and distant paradises as well as to the ski slopes of the Alps and the metropolitan centres of the world. The company also offers packages tailored to customers' special interests and pastimes.
The build-up to the war in Iraq and the commencement of hostilities in early 2003 reduced demand for leisure travel in the countries of the eastern Mediterranean. Trips to Turkey, Greece and Cyprus as well as to Arab countries of the Middle East were cancelled and replaced by destinations in countries deemed to be more safe.
The SARS outbreak in China and certain other Asian countries in the spring reduced demand for leisure travel to China and Vietnam. The number of trips to Thailand also declined slightly, even though the country was not touched by the epidemic at all.
Sales of summer sun holidays are always partly dependent on the Finnish weather. A cool, rainy start to the summer in Finland encouraged holidaymakers to browse the travel brochures and guarantee for themselves a sunny vacation at Aurinkomatkat destinations. The improved summer demand more than made up for fewer early-season bookings than normal.
Aurinkomatkat-Suntours' turnover grew by around two per cent to 195.1 million euros. Measured both by customer volumes and revenue, Aurinkomatkat-Suntours is the market leader with a over 35 per cent market share. Last year nearly 300,000 customers travelled with the orange Aurinkomatkat label on their luggage.
Package tours are increasingly being promoted and sold via e-business channels. Around ten per cent of all Aurinkomatkat holidays are sold via the Internet, which is more than double the previous year's figure.
Finnair Leisure Flights
Finnair Leisure Flights is still the strong market leader in leisure travel flights in Finland. Finnair's leisure flight services are used by the majority of Finnish tour operators.
Last year more than 600,000 return journeys to over 60 destinations were made on Finnair's leisure flights. Among the new destinations were Colombo in Sri Lanka and Natal in Brazil. Demand for trips to Brazil doubled from the previous year. The capacity and load factor of leisure flights remained nearly at the previous year's level.
Finnair Leisure Flights carries passengers mainly using 227-seat Boeing B757 aircraft. Finnair Leisure Flights' fleet has seven B757s. The average utilization rate of this type of aircraft in Finnair Leisure Flights' fleet is the world's highest, measured in flying hours.
In the summer months, two of Finnair Leisure Flights' aircraft were leased, complete with pilots, to the service of a UK leisure flight operator. The aircraft flew to holiday destinations in the Mediterranean. |