Finnair Group's operational result collapsed from a record level of 100 million euros in 2007 to less than seven million euros. The most significant factors were fuel, which remained expensive until the autumn, and a sharp fall in the average price of flight tickets. “The airline industry's profitability weakened rapidly during 2008. Corporate customers have cut their travel budgets. To date we have kept our aircraft reasonable full of customers, but the price level has fallen as costs have risen,” says Finnair President & CEO Jukka Hienonen. Turnover rose 3.8 per cent to 2,180.5 million euros. The reported result before taxes was a loss of 56.4 million euros, while the operational result excluding non-recurring items was a profit of 6.6 million euros. The significant difference is due to changes in the fair value of future unrealised fuel hedgings. In 2008 Finnair carried 8.3 million passengers. Total passenger volume declined by 4.4 per cent from 2007, following the sale of the FlyNordic subsidiary. In Leisure Traffic, passenger numbers grew by ten per cent. Leisure Traffic was very profitable. Passenger traffic capacity increased by over eight per cent and revenue passenger kilometres grew by nearly eight per cent. Asian traffic grew by 16.5 per cent. The passenger load factor for all traffic was nearly at the previous year's level of 75.2 per cent. The amount of cargo carried fell from the previous year by 3.5 per cent to 100 million kilos. “Both passenger and cargo demand fell strongly at the end of last year. Forecasts suggests that the trend will continue this year. We enter the new year 2009 facing the most gloomy outlook for some time.” The renewal of the wide-bodied fleet will continue in 2009. Five new Airbus A330-300 long-haul aircraft will be acquired this year and at last three in 2010. The Airbus aircraft will replace the six Boeing MD-11 aircraft to be withdrawn from Finnair's fleet by end of March 2010. “For Finnair, this year will be one of large fleet investments. Otherwise the year just begun will be one of adjustment to the situation in a crisis industry. Our task is to ensure that we survive the rocky road that lies ahead, and it is absolutely necessary to cut our cost structure permanently to a competitive level.” The first quarter is expected to remain clearly loss-making. The operational result for the full year will substantially depend on the demand situation and cost development. The outlook for the full year is extremely challenging. Finnair Plc Communications 5.2.2009