Finnish airports see higher passengers in May but lower than 2019

A total of 1,321,411 passengers flew through Finnish airports in May 2022, according to Statistics Finland.

The number of passengers was 17 per cent bigger than in the previous month and multiple compared to last year, but still only 58 per cent of the number of passengers in May 2019.

In May, a total of 1,148,453 million passengers flew through Helsinki Airport and a total of 172,958 million passengers through other domestic airports. Helsinki Airport accounted for 87 per cent of all passengers at domestic airports.

The number of passengers at Helsinki Airport was 41 per cent lower and the combined number of passengers at other domestic airports 47 per cent lower than in May 2019.

Compared with May 2021, the number of passengers at both Helsinki Airport and other domestic airports was multiple times higher.

The exceptionally high relative growth in the number of passengers compared to last year is caused by the collapse of air traffic due to the COVID-19 pandemic starting from spring 2020.

The year 2019 is used in the statistics as the comparison year to describe the number of air passengers before the pandemic.

Eighty per cent of the air passengers were on international flights and 20 per cent on domestic flights. The share of passengers on international flights was 88 per cent at Helsinki Airport and 22 per cent in total at other domestic airports.

In May 2022, air freight and mail transport totalled 13,261 tonnes, which was five per cent less than one year earlier.

In all, 99.7 per cent of the tonnes were transported through Helsinki-Vantaa Airport and 99 per cent in traffic between Finland and foreign countries. Altogether 7,037 tonnes (53%) of the transported volume of goods were outgoing and 6,224 tonnes (47%) were incoming.