Finnish national carrier Finnair flew fewer passengers in June as the global economic slowdown hurt demand, it said on Tuesday.
Finnair's total number of passengers on scheduled flights declined 2.5 percent in June, although it has been flying more routes and planes it said.
The airline's total revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) rose 5.3 percent from a year earlier to 1.79 billion in June, after a 6.3 percent increase in May.
Finnair's overall passenger load factor fell 3.6 percentage points to 73.4 percent.
Passenger load factor on Finnair's Asia routes, a spearhead of its growth plans, dropped 6.9 percentage points to 69 percent.
"Schedule arrangements and capacity cuts in long-haul traffic will be made to improve load factors. The changes will come into effect from the start of the winter schedule," Finnair said in a statement.
The airline said earlier this month it would increase the number of onward flight connections for its Asia-Europe flights to improve passenger sales and load factors to counter pressure from record high fuel prices.
Last month Finnair flagged a plan to cut up to 500 jobs due to the high cost of fuel and a fall in demand.
Finnair's Nordic rival SAS said on Monday its passenger traffic rose in June, but its load factor was down 1.8 percentage points at 74.7 percent.
