Finnair’s comparable operating profit rose to €84.0 million in the third quarter, from €50.7 million a year earlier, as revenue increased 14.2% to €953.2 million. The Helsinki-based airline carried 3.5 million passengers between July and September, up 7.0%, while its passenger load factor improved by two percentage points to 81.8%.
Reported operating profit increased to €86.2 million from €52.1 million. Finnair attributed the stronger performance to resilient travel demand, higher passenger revenue, cost management and reduced market capacity linked to the conflict in the Middle East.
For the first nine months, passenger numbers rose 7.3% to 9.6 million and comparable operating profit reached €161.8 million. The year-earlier comparison was weakened by industrial action, which had a direct negative effect of approximately €18 million on comparable operating profit in the third quarter and around €68 million in the nine-month period.
Finnair maintained its 2026 outlook for revenue of €3.5 billion to €3.6 billion and comparable operating profit of €175 million to €220 million. Total capacity is expected to increase by about 1%, while passenger numbers in the airline’s own traffic are forecast to rise by approximately 7%. CEO Turkka Kuusisto described demand as resilient but warned that high fuel prices and uncertainty over fuel costs, inflation and interest rates continued to create a challenging operating environment.