See the amazing list of this year’s new flight routes

2016 is an exceptional year for Finavia airports. Helsinki Airport will offer more flights to Asia, Europe and the Middle East, and Lapland is attracting more airlines than ever. The capacities of regional airports will also increase this year.

The new routes will connect Finland even more smoothly with the rest of the world and strengthen the role of Helsinki Airport as the leading transfer airport in northern Europe.

“We want to express our warmest welcome to the new routes and airlines. Thanks to growing passenger volumes and the new routes, Helsinki Airport and the airports in Lapland will probably achieve yet another record in the number of passengers this year. We will continue on this growth path and look forward to opening even more routes in the future”, says Joni Sundelin, Senior Vice President of Finavia.

The latest newcomer to operate at Helsinki Airport is Qatar Airways, which will start flying between Doha and Helsinki in October. These new route launches mean even more flight connections for Helsinki Airport, connecting Finland not only with the Middle East, but also with India, Africa and Australia.

The number of Asian route options has grown immensely in 2016, thanks to Finnair’s new routes to Guangzhou, China and Fukuoka, Japan, which were launched in May. Helsinki Airport currently offers 17 direct flights to Asia. In summer 2016, Helsinki Airport will offer more flight routes to Japan than any other European airport.

Examples of new routes 

New long-haul destinations

Qatar Airways will start flying between Doha and Helsinki on October 10.

Finnair launched routes to Fukuoka, Japan, and Guangzhou, China, for summer 2016. There are three weekly flights to Fukuoka and four to Guangzhou.

Miami became Finnair's new summer destination in April 2016. Finnair operates flights from Helsinki to Miami all-year-round three times a week.

In addition to non-stop flights, the connections between China and Helsinki improved in June, thanks to Ural Airlines that started operating scheduled flights from Yekaterinburg to Helsinki Airport. Ural Airlines cooperates closely with travel agency Utour that carries passengers from China to Finland via Yekaterinburg.

Alluring Lapland

Lufthansa will double the number of its flights between Munich and Kittilä in the winter season 2016–2017 and operate two weekly flights. Lufthansa will also operate non-stop scheduled flights between Frankfurt and Ivalo on Saturdays from 17 December to 25 March.

German carrier Germania will launch three new routes from Lapland to Germany and Switzerland: Berlin–Rovaniemi, Düsseldorf–Kittilä and Zurich–Rovaniemi. It will operate flights from Zurich to Rovaniemi twice a week from December to March and flights from Berlin to Kittilä and from Düsseldorf to Rovaniemi twice a week from January to March 2017.

Airline Monarch will fly to Kittilä from Manchester and London. Flights from London to Kittilä will be available from December to February and from Manchester to Kittilä in December. Monarch will operate both of these routes two times a week.

Lapland is a popular holiday destination also during the autumn season, and Finnair will increase the number of return flights to Kittilä and Ivalo by twenty-eight this September.

The beauty of Lapland’s nature appeals to visitors also in the summer: Dutch Voigt Travel will launch two weekly charter flights between Amsterdam and Rovaniemi in the summer season 2017.

More regional connections

Regional airports received more capacity this year, when SAS introduced larger aircrafts on its routes to Stockholm and started operating more flights from Vaasa, Turku and Tampere. SAS operates four daily flights between these three regional airports and Arlanda.

Furthermore, Tampere-Pirkkala airport has, since April, offered non-stop connections to Bremen, Germany, and Budapest, Hungary; both routes operated by Ryanair. There will be two weekly flights to both of these destinations until the end of October.

Next winter, Lomamatkat will operate flights from regional airports and from Helsinki to La Palma, a new destination in the Canary Islands. The first flight from Helsinki to La Palma will depart on 22 December. Flights from regional airports will begin on 17 February.

More European destinations

Finnair will launch a new summer destination from Helsinki this year: Pula in Croatia. The company also launched all-year-round flights from Helsinki to Edinburgh, Scotland, and Billund, Denmark. In September, Finnair will launch a route between Umeå and Helsinki in collaboration with Swedish regional airline BRA.

Czech Airlines reintroduced daily flights between Helsinki Airport and Prague after a five-year break.

In the winter season, Norwegian will operate direct flights between Helsinki and Nice, Dublin and Palma de Mallorca.

SAS will increase the capacity of its flights between Helsinki and Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen. Icelandair will also operate more flights from Helsinki to Reykjavik this summer; there will be two direct flights every day. Ukraine International Airlines also increased the number of flights between Helsinki and Kiev this summer. It now operates a daily connection, and it is planning to add five more weekly flights to its winter schedule.

This summer, Helsinki Airport will also serve as a hub for cruise passengers, as Spanish travel agency Pullmantur Cruises starts operating cruises in the Baltic Sea for passengers who arrive from Spain to Helsinki by plane.

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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 22 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 2015 were EUR 353 million, and the number of employees 2300.

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