HELSINKI (Reuters) -Finnish airline Finnair reported on Thursday a fall in third-quarter comparable operating profit and lowered its full-year sales guidance, partly due to weak demand for flights across the North Atlantic.
Comparable operating profit fell 29% from a year earlier to 50.7 million euros ($59.5 million), including an 18 million hit from pilot and air traffic staff strikes.
Finnair said it now sees 2025 comparable operating profit in the range of 30–60 million euros on sales of around 3.1 billion. Its previous outlook, from July, had been for a profit towards the lower end of a 30-130 million euro range on sales of 3.3–3.4 billion.
“These adjustments reflect continued softness in North Atlantic demand and yields, indirect effects of earlier industrial action, unplanned aircraft maintenance needs, and fuel price developments,” CEO Turkka Kuusisto said in a statement.
Finnair, which is majority-owned by the state, seeks to rebound from the twin blows from the COVID-19 pandemic followed by Russia’s airspace closure in 2022 that hit the group’s Europe-to-Asia business.
It in July warned that weaker-than-expected demand for North Atlantic flights, falling ticket prices and the impact of strikes could weigh on 2025 earnings.
Shares in the company were down 1% in early trade.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Essi Lehto, editing by Anna Ringstrom)
