All arrivals not to face COVID doc checking at Helsinki Airport

The Helsinki-Vantaa Airport will not check the coronavirus vaccination certificate from each and every incoming passenger and will run checking randomly to expedite processing of fully vaccinated travelers.

Vantaa City Mayor Ritva Viljanen on Sunday said that a green channel has been created for the fully vaccinated people, about 80-90 percent of all passengers.

“A green line has been created at the airport for the 80-90 % passengers, who have been vaccinated twice. Covid certificates will only be checked randomly,” Ritva Viljanen wrote in a twitter post in Finnish on Sunday.

She also wrote,” the change was necessary to ease chaos at the airport. Now there will be no huge queue anymore.”

Earlier, on September 22, Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo, HUS, Finavia, Finnair and the Port of Helsinki in a joint statement said that the government's proposal does not bring about the necessary change to border health control activities.

Finland's national goal is to open up society and promote its remaining open, as well as to support the aftercare and reconstruction regarding the corona epidemic. The opening up of society must also extend to facilitating entry into Finland with the increase in vaccination coverage, said the press release.

Border security measures should be eased by raising the incidence threshold that is too low for the country of risk, the press release added.

The cities of Helsinki and Vantaa, in co-operation with HUS, will develop a model for random checks on passengers within the framework of current legislation, when no changes to the legislation are still being proposed.

Elsewhere in Europe, the verification of COVID-19 certificates is largely the responsibility of travel operators, and certificates are no longer checked at the border. The certificates of passengers arriving at the airport have, for the most part, already been checked once by the travel operators, and, in any case, the majority already have full vaccination protection. Also in ports, the majority of arriving passengers are vaccinated, the press release added.