Finavia to host a global aviation strategy conference in Helsinki

Aviation CEOs from around the world will gather in Finland in October at the CAPA World Aviation Summit. Finavia is the host and CAPA's official global destination partner for 2015. The role is a demonstration of Finavia's strong position as a developer of aviation in Finland and the trust the operators in the field have in the company. The event also provides Finland with an excellent opportunity to engage in destination marketing towards international airlines.

CAPA organises high level events for airline CEOs, decision-makers and experts in aviation. The CAPA World Aviation Summit 2015, to be held on 7-8 October, will be the first CAPA conference organised in Finland. The summit will review the strategic, commercial, growth, regulatory and earnings prospects for the year ahead and to debate the hot issues that are garnering airline CEOs’ attention.

The two-day conference is expected to bring approximately 200 airline CEOs, aviation decision-makers and experts from throughout the world to Finland. Finavia is honoured to host this event.

- It is great to be able to bring such a large-scale and important air traffic industry event to Finland for the first time. This demonstrates that our active work in developing air traffic has been noticed around the world and that people trust our expertise, says Joni Sundelin, director at Finavia.

Helsinki Airport, operated by Finavia, is an important hub between Europe and Asia. Its ideal geographical location ensures a fast connection from Asia and elsewhere in the world. In addition, Helsinki Airport's fees charged from the airlines are among the lowest and transit times among the shortest in Europe. As a whole, Finavia offers smooth and reliable processes to its airline clients and passengers, not only at Helsinki Airport but also 23 other airports in Finland.

- We are delighted to partner with Finavia, a world class airport operator and leader in many aspects, as host of our fourth annual World Aviation Summit and to bring this important event to Helsinki. The event will tackle the key disruptive trends to the global aviation and corporate travel markets, with a focus on the regulatory issues and barriers that are constraining our industry, says Peter Harbison, CAPA’s executive chairman.

Focus on Asia

It is predicted that the traffic to Asia will experience a rapid growth in coming years. During the last five years, the number of seats available from Helsinki Airport to Asia has grown by almost 45 per cent. Finavia has answered and prepared to this growth not only through traffic volume but also its service range.

- There are currently direct flights from Helsinki to 15 destinations in Asia. This number is remarkable compared to other Nordic airports. In addition to short transfer times, we have invested in services for transit passengers travelling to Asia. For example, we offer Japanese and Korean passengers an automatic border control while free and limitless WI-FI connection is available to all our passengers, says Sundelin.

The conference supports the route development in whole of Finland

Finavia actively attracts airlines to increase their route selection from Finnish airports by, for example, participating in the trade events and keeping closely in touch with international airlines with a variety of means. The company plans business activities in cooperation with airlines and offers discounts on air traffic fees for new routes.

At the same time, it cooperates with various parties with activities in the vicinity of its airports, such as tourism industry. A well-functioning airport in itself is not enough to attract airlines to destinations, since the decisions by airlines are steered above all by the attractiveness and market demand of each area.

- Hosting the conference supports our active route development measures. It is a fantastic opportunity to present Finland as a destination to airlines and increase the airlines' awareness of Helsinki Airport and Finland’s main regional airports. However, we cannot do this alone but need the help of active local tourism operators to bring out the attractiveness of areas and make airlines interested about them. A well-functioning airport alone will not attract an international airline to a new airport, since competition for airport routes is extremely stiff, says Sundelin.

Towards 20 million passengers

Finavia has launched a 900 million euro development programme at Helsinki Airport, which aims to increase the transit traffic capacity of the airport and ensure Helsinki Airport's strong status in transit air traffic between Europe and Asia also in the future.

At the same time, a wide-ranging service reform is under way at Helsinki Airport which will bring approximately 70 new or revamped cafés and shops to the airport. The rail link from the Helsinki city centre to be launched in July 2015 will make the airport increasingly accessible.

At regional airports, Finavia focuses its investments especially on its airports in Lapland in 2015.

CAPA World Aviation Summit 2015 in Helsinki 7–8 October 2015.
More information: http://bit.ly/1HCXwPq

Finavia
Communications

Media Desk tel. 358 20 708 2002, comms@finavia.fi

Finavia provides and develops airport and air navigation services with focus on safety, customer-orientation and cost efficiency. Finavia’s comprehensive network of 24 airports enables international connections from Finland — and to different parts of Finland. Helsinki Airport is the leading Northern European transit airport for long-haul traffic. Revenues in 2014 were EUR 350 million, and the number of employees 2900.

Finavia online:
www.finavia.com
www.facebook.com/finavia
www.facebook.com/helsinkiairport
www.twitter.com/helsinkiairport
www.twitter.com/finaviaoyj

Annual report 2013: http://vuosikertomus.finavia.fi/en/

CAPA – Centre for Aviation
Founded in 1990, CAPA is the leading global provider of independent aviation market intelligence, analysis and data services at www.centreforaviation.com. Understanding aviation markets is our great strength. CAPA also runs aviation conferences around the world each year, attracting airline CEOs from around the world to speak on contemporary issues facing the industry.