Helsinki Airport to house country’s top hotel

LAK Real Estate Oy will have Finland’s largest hotel ensemble built into their ownership at the Helsinki Airport, said a press release issued by Finavia quoting a LAK Real Estate source.

The construction will start next year, and the target is to open the hotel in 2023.

“This new hotel project will rise right next to the airport terminal to serve air passengers and conference guests, thereby greatly supporting the overall development of the airport area,” said LAK Managing Director Tommi Vaisalo.

The new hotel will become by far the largest in Finland. The 13-storey hotel ensemble with over 700 rooms will have two different and mutually complementing concepts.

The hotel also offers large-scale conference services which the airport area has been lacking so far. The top floor will house a Sky Bar, not only for the hotel guests but will also have an indoor passage connection to the airport terminal and the railway station below.

“This is a considerable project even on the national scale. Aviapolis is one of Finland’s fastest growing workplace areas where the new conference hotel will contribute to the area development by offering quality accommodation and conference rooms also to the demands of international business activity,” said LAK Board Chairman Mikko Räsänen.

“It is great to have a world-class hotel at Helsinki-Vantaa to complement the service offering of the airport and support the airport development as a significant European air traffic hub,” observed Finavia Chief Executive Officer Kimmo Mäki.

The company chosen as the new hotel operator is Nordic Choice Hotels. The planning of the hotel project started in 2018. Vaisala states that co-operation negotiations were held with several parties, but the strong brands and competence of Nordic Choice Hotels were convincing.

The planning was conditioned from the start by having two different concepts for the new hotel project to offer the widest possible choice of services to the different target groups. Nordic Choice has also developed conference activity at the Arlanda airport with great success.