Surrounded by the Europe’s fourth biggest lake, Saimaa, Savonlinna is known for its world class opera festival and other cultural events during the summer holidays. Its airport, located north of the town center, is the smallest year-round airport owned by Finavia and is busiest during this time.
“Opera festivals are held from early July to early August. This year, there were 52 scheduled flights and 10 charter flights,” says Mauri Vihavainen, manager of Savonlinna Airport.
The airport, which has been assigned the IATA code SVL and recognized as Finavia Airport of the Year in 1989 and 1996, served a total of 13,533 passengers in 2015. 11,002 were domestic passengers and 2,531 were international passengers. One airline operates regularly from Helsinki to Savonlinna and there are two to three charter flights yearly.
So what else is there to know? Read on and find out.
1. Though the airport was officially inaugurated in 1974, the first scheduled flight took off in 1973. That makes Savonlinna Airport as old as American singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams, Google co-founder Larry Page, and Game of Thrones actress Lena Headey.
2. Previously managed by the city of Savonlinna, the airport became part of the Finavia family in 1980. On that year, Ronald Reagan was elected president of the US, CNN became the first 24-hour news station, and ABBA released their seventh studio album, Super Trouper.
3. The asphalt runway is 2300 meters long and 45 meters wide. The overall length is equivalent to about 61 Airbus A320 aircraft lined up nose to tail while the width is enough to accommodate more than 18 Helsinki tram cars parked side by side.
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