During the first six months of the year, the total number of passengers travelling via Finavia airports amounted to 12.3 million passengers, which is 1.3 million more than the year before. This represents an increase of 11.9 per cent. Helsinki Airport served a record-breaking 10.1 million air passengers.

"Growth of nearly 12 per cent is sky-high. The direction is good not only at Helsinki Airport but also at our central regional airports. The excellent figures not only reflect the favourable economic situation but also Helsinki Airport's strengthened position as the hub for air traffic between Europe and Asia. This development has boosted a great increase also in other airports of the network," says Joni Sundelin, Airport Director of Helsinki Airport, who is in charge of Finavia's route development.

No End in Sight for Helsinki Airport's Record Breaking

"The threshold of 10 million air passengers was reached already in June at Helsinki Airport. More than 84 per cent of the passengers flew on scheduled international flights. The number of transfer passengers grew the most (+ 23.9%)," explains Sundelin.

The strong growth of passenger volumes at Helsinki Airport can be explained, not only with more frequent flights than before, but also with the fact that more and more airlines are flying larger wide-body aircraft. Regarding long-haul flights, the largest number of passengers flew on routes to and from Japan, Thailand and China. Among single destinations, Qatar's figures faced a huge increase of 137.6 per cent.

"We expect the growth to continue at Helsinki Airport. We predict that this year the annual passenger volume will exceed 21 million. Currently, Helsinki Airport is undergoing a billion euro investment programme getting ready to serve 30 million passengers," says Sundelin.

Strong Growth Also at Regional Airports

According to Sundelin, there were over 15,500 flights more to and from Finavia airports compared to the corresponding period of the previous year (+ 8.3%). For instance in June, the total number of scheduled flights to and from Finland grew by 1,600 (+ 4.8%) and the number of passengers by 221,000 (+ 11.1%).

Again this year, Sweden and Germany have retained their position as the most popular flight destinations.

"With regard to regional airports, the highest number of international flight passengers was to and from Spain. Furthermore, holiday flights to Greece have become more popular. The number of flights to and from the UK grew by more than 20 per cent, which results from Lapland charter flights. All in all, according to our statistics, there were 18.7% more passengers departing from regional airports to Europe at the beginning of the year than the year before," says Sundelin.

Contributed by Finavia