The airport company's winter preparations start as early as the summer. These preparations have included recruiting seasonal workers for winter maintenance, training permanent and new employees, and servicing maintenance equipment such as snow ploughs and sweeper blowers.
"The maintenance team at Helsinki Airport has started its preparations for the winter season early to ensure that we will be ready for the first snowfall. The fleet of 200 vehicles used for winter maintenance is in good shape, and we have once again recruited experienced seasonal workers to handle the ploughing of runways," says Finavia's Pyry Pennanen, Head of Airfield Maintenance at Helsinki Airport.
Runway maintenance with snow removal machines is carried out in groups of approximately 15 machines, with each driver having a predefined task.
"To keep flights on schedule, the maintenance team has 13 minutes to perform a single sweep of a runway area that is 3,500 metres long and 60 metres wide. The most experienced drivers are always up front. Their professional expertise ensures that the entire formation moves at the same pace and the runway is swept perfectly. When the maintenance team is successful, air traffic stays on schedule in winter conditions.
In addition to the runways, snow removal operations in the winter are also performed in the apron area, aircraft parking and de-icing areas, the airport's service roads and ground traffic routes. The total size of the area for snow removal operations at Helsinki Airport is approximately 350 hectares.
Helsinki Airport's winter fleet consists of 200 vehicles
Helsinki Airport has several kilometres of runways and apron areas, which are maintained in good condition for traffic operations throughout the snowy winter. This year, the equipment used by Helsinki Airport’s maintenance team includes 21 sweeper blowers, 19 trucks for anti-skid operations and snow removal, 12 wheel loaders, 12 snow blowers, three friction tester vehicles and two motor graders.
"The crown jewels of winter maintenance are the Vammas PSB 5500 sweeper blowers, which were partly developed at Helsinki Airport. The highly powerful multi-functional snow ploughs have been designed for Finnish winter conditions".
PSB is short for plough, sweep, blow. The 5500 in the name of the machine indicates its working width of 5.5 metres.
“Our goal is safe and smooth air traffic in all weather conditions, every day of the year. This requires our world-renowned snow-how,” Pennanen notes.
Finavia is testing low-emission motive power solutions for its heavy winter fleet
A sweeper blower used for snow removal weighs more than 30 tonnes, and the equipment consumes 80% of all the fuels used by Finavia.
“We currently use renewable fuel for the fleet, but we are also exploring the possibility of using hydrogen as the motive power for the airport’s heavy fleet."
Finavia is participating in an international hydrogen project aimed at preparing for hydrogen processing in the airport environment. In the BSR HyAirport hydrogen project, Finavia will replace one of the engines of a Finnish-made sweeper blower with a piston engine that burns gaseous hydrogen. It will be deployed during the 2025–2026 winter season.
