- The work has begun in April with the objective of ensuring fluent and safe air traffic and reducing environmental impacts. The airport will be significantly improved for both current operators and future needs, says airport director Mari Nurminen from Finavia.
According to Nurminen, improving the traffic area will make it possible to operate wide-body aircraft, such as Airbus A350 planes, at Tampere-Pirkkala Airport when necessary. The new taxiway connection and wide turnarounds for the planes will increase the utilisation rate of the runway and enable the use of larger planes.
Basic renovation work is being conducted in different parts of the airport’s traffic areas: aprons, runway and taxiway. The total renovation area is 330,000 square metres, which is equivalent to roughly the area of 50 football fields.
Other parts of the infrastructure will also be improved. As part of the project, Finavia will acquire an instrument landing system (ILS) that increases safety in weather conditions with reduced visibility. The environmental impacts of de-icing activities will be reduced by constructing new pump stations and implementing soil protection.
In addition, the airport’s lighting will be improved by replacing the lights along the taxiway with LED technology. This is another method for reducing the airport’s environmental impacts. The replacement of the lights is part of Finavia’s fast-track climate programme that aims to bring the emissions of Finavia’s airports down to zero.
Airport closed from air traffic on 17 July–12 August 2018
Finavia has planned the work to disturb air traffic as little as possible. The work at the airport will be begun in stages over April. At that point, the construction work will be visible to passengers in places such as the aprons.
The runway paving work will take place during the least busy time for air traffic. The airport will be closed from air traffic from 17 July to 12 August 2018 for the duration of the runway paving work.
Renewed Tampere-Pirkkala Airport will be opened on 13 August 2018, with planes ascending and descending on the brand new runway.
Finavia has invested more than EUR 21 million in Tampere-Pirkkala Airport
In recent years, Finavia has invested more than EUR 21 million in the development of Tampere-Pirkkala Airport. In addition to the current development work, Finavia has invested in improving the passenger areas and services in both terminals and reducing the airport’s environmental impacts.
The Tampere-Pirkkala improvement project in a nutshell
- Investment amount: EUR 15,000,000
- Renovation work area: 330,000 square metres
- Apron expansion: 22,000 square metres
- New runway turnarounds: 8,000 square metres
- The new taxiway: 150 metres
- New LED lights for the taxiway: more than 150 lights
- Electrical wiring: more than 10 kilometres
- New glycol pump stations: 2 stations
- Soil protection: 8,000 square metres
- Renewed ILS equipment
Finavia invests 15 millions into Tampere-Pirkkala Airport in 2018
