aviation: Winter 2023/24: Lapland with 18 new international routes

The Finnish airport operator Finavia is enjoying great interest from airlines, as 24 new routes will be added to the airports operated by this company in the 2023/24 winter flight schedule alone. This means there are 130 non-stop connections available abroad.

“At Finavia, we continuously work with the airlines and our regional partners to ensure that the route offering remains comprehensive and Finland remains accessible.” The coming winter season is evidence of this long-term work. “Our airports connect Finland to more than 130 destinations around the world,” says Petri Vuori, Finavia’s senior vice president in charge of route development.

Of the 24 routes, an impressive 18 are at airports located in the Lapland region. In total, Lapland will be served on 35 international flights next winter. The airlines are offering 240,000 additional passenger seats (+16%) on flights to and from Lapland compared to last winter. Of the increase in seats, around 150,000 are on flights to and from Rovaniemi Airport.

Ryanair will begin flights to Rovaniemi from Liverpool and Milan in October/November. During December, EasyJet will fly to Santa’s hometown from up to five different destinations: Edinburgh, Paris, London, Amsterdam and Naples.

The super day for route openings is December 2, 2023, when Finavia will launch new routes from up to four different airlines. On this day, Iberia Airlines will begin flights from Madrid, while Vueling will fly from Barcelona, ​​​​Finnair will fly from Tromsø and Austrian Airlines will fly from Vienna. Eurowings will also open the route from Rovaniemi to Berlin in January 2024.

In addition to the new routes, Ryanair will resume flights to Rovaniemi from Dublin, London Stansted and Brussels Charleroi. EasyJet will continue to fly to London Gatwick, Bristol, Manchester and Milan. KLM will maintain its services from Rovaniemi to Amsterdam, while Air France will continue to fly to Paris, Turkish Airlines to Istanbul and Eurowings to Düsseldorf.

From November 2023, Kittilä will be connected to the UK by two new EasyJet routes as the company launches flights to Manchester and London Gatwick Airport. The routes returning to Kittilä Airport are Air France’s Paris route, Eurowings’ Düsseldorf route, Air Baltic’s Riga route and Lufthansa’s Munich route.

During the Christmas holidays, Eurowings will start flights from Ivalo and Kuusamo airports to Düsseldorf. The Swiss airline Edelweiss Air will also start scheduled flights from Ivalo and Kuusamo to Zurich at the beginning of February 2024. In addition, Lufthansa will resume flights from Frankfurt to Ivalo and Kuusamo.

Finnair will increase its flights from Helsinki Airport to all Finavia airports in Lapland in winter. In addition to Finnair, Norwegian also offers flights from Helsinki Airport to Rovaniemi.

“The tourism season in Lapland will be record-breaking this winter. “Next, we will work even more intensively on the development of the summer season in Lapland and the associated opportunities for the region,” says Vuori.

Overview of the new routes:

Rovaniemi airport

Kittila Airport

Ivalo airport

Kuusamo airport

Tampere-Pirkkala Airport

Oulu airport

Helsinki Airport