Traffic Management Company Fintraffic Ltd’s Financial Statement Bulletin 2021

January–December 2021

• The Group’s revenue was EUR 209.7 (182.4) million
• Operating profit totalled EUR 6.1 (-8.0) million
• The Group’s result was weakened by reduced demand for air navigation services as a result of the pandemic
• The coronavirus pandemic did not impact the revenue and result of road, rail and maritime traffic management
• The service level remained good and the safety level high in all traffic management functions
• Demand for the open data produced by Fintraffic rose by 30% and 386 TB of data was transferred in open interfaces
• Service provision efficiency increased. EUR 25 million in streamlining already achieved in 2019-2021
• Investments totalled EUR 60.8 (63.0) million and the balance sheet remained strong.

The Fintraffic Group’s revenue for its third financial year totalled EUR 209.7 (182.4) million. The majority of the Group’s revenue was generated by road, rail and maritime traffic management services ordered by the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, which had a sales value of EUR 142.6 (131.8) million as per the service agreement. As in the previous year, demand for air navigation services was low as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. However, revenue rose year-on-year to EUR 62.8 million (49.3), primarily due to a higher regulatory adjustment.

Operating profit totalled EUR 6.1 (-8.0) million with an operating margin of 2.9 (-4.4) per cent. The profit after taxes for the financial year was EUR 5.4 (-9.4) million. Investments were almost at the same level as in the previous year, totalling EUR 60.8 (63.0) million. A business transaction with the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency transferred EUR 26.3 million in traffic management assets that were incomplete when Finntraffic was incorporated. Investments were mainly financed with bank loans. The company’s balance sheet remained strong. The equity ratio was 59.5 (69.8) per cent.

“Even though the coronavirus situation hindered our work throughout the year, we provided our traffic management services smoothly and efficiently during 2021. At the same time, we made progress in our strategic projects in all modes of transport and promoted the use of data in the transport sector. Our company is committed to improving our safety and service level, increasing reliability, and boosting the efficiency of our traffic management service provision. A streamlining target of EUR 30 million has been set for the company for the period 2019–2022, and by the end of last year we had managed to streamline our operations by EUR 25 million,” says Fintraffic’s CEO Pertti Korhonen.

In January 2021, Fintraffic invited transport sector operators to join the open Transport data ecosystem – a network that already boasts 130 organisations. The ecosystem aims to boost data utilisation, create a fair digital business environment, and provide travel and transport chain services both in Finland and internationally. Fintraffic shared 386 terabytes of traffic data with the ecosystem, and an average of more than 350 million interface calls were made to Digitraffic every month, representing a rise of 30 per cent on the previous year. 

The company’s sustainability work also progressed: the goal is for the company’s own service provision to be carbon neutral by 2023. 

The most significant financial risks in 2022 are the further prolongation of the coronavirus pandemic, the geopolitical crisis in Eastern Europe, and their impact on air traffic volumes (and therefore also on the income from and profitability of air navigation services). The prolonged pandemic may have permanently changed both consumers’ and companies’ travel habits and the financial stability of airlines. The war between Ukraine and Russia is impacting the usability of European and Russian airspace, and thereby income from air routes. The closure of Russian airspace will effectively put an end to overflights in Finland and significantly reduce revenue from air navigation.

Another significant financial uncertainty is the funding allocated to traffic management in the State budget, that is, to what extent will the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency be able to purchase the traffic management services it requires. There has been a growing need for traffic management services and their associated investments in recent years due to new route investments and a need to develop rail transport. Unless the company can be assured of stable income, it may be forced to scale back its provision of traffic management services and reassess its target levels for safety, security of supply, smoothness or cost-effectiveness in traffic management.

Fintraffic will publish its Annual Report, Sustainability Report and Financial Statements in full on Monday 28 March.