The one-millionth passenger of 2017 is Heli Rauhala. She arrived at Kittilä on Norwegian flight in the morning. Kittilä’s Airport Manager Kimmo Liukkonen from Finavia gave a bunch of flowers to the millionth passenger and an airline ticket to the Norwegian destination of her choice.
Coffee and cake was also served at the terminal to celebrate the achievement of this milestone.
“Warm congratulations to Lapland’s one-millionth airport passenger. This milestone was reached earlier than last year and is expected to happen even earlier next year. Lapland is the winter attraction of Finland and this means there will be an enormous amount of passengers between November and April,” says Finavia director Joni Sundelin.
Finavia has hired more staff at their airports for the winter season to make sure that air traffic happens as smoothly as possible. The busiest days of winter at the airports in Lapland also result in temporary shortage of space, and planes arrive and depart in an uninterrupted flow.
“The northern destinations are now popular, there are a lot of passengers and the terminal spaces at the airports are limited. During the winter, we will make many changes in the Kittilä and Rovaniemi airports, for example, that will ease the situation, but we kindly ask that passengers to reserve enough time when they arrive at the airport, and to please be patient”, says Sundelin.
The flow at the Kittilä and Rovaniemi departure lounges will be improved during the winter by the introduction of check-in kiosks and by making the ticket checking process at the security check line quicker. More restaurant and cafe sales points will be taken into use at the airport gate areas during peak hours. In addition, baggage drop kiosks for luggage will be introduced at the Rovaniemi departure lounge.
“At the moment we are thinking about solutions that will improve Lapland airports’ ability to respond to the increase in air traffic in a more permanent way. We will have more information about these development plans later this winter,” Sundelin says.
Finavia’s airports in Lapland include Rovaniemi, Kittilä, Ivalo, Kuusamo, Kemi-Tornio, and Enontekiö.
