Passengers at Helsinki Airport raises by 4m in 2 years

The number of passengers at Helsinki Airport has risen by 4 million in the last two years, said Finavia, the company operates country´s airports.

Of these, more than three million can be estimated to travel via the so-called Schengen area, from which flights depart for Finland and other parts of Europe, according to a press release.

Although Finavia set a goal of the development programme to serve 30 million passengers, the unexpectedly sharp increase in the number of passengers created demand for more capacity for domestic passengers by this time before implementation of the expansion of the aritport.

“The Schengen area in Terminal 2 will not receive extra space until the expansion is ready, approximately in 2022. That’s why, in the last two years – and especially this year – each m2 of the terminal area has been assigned to passenger use,” said Timo Järvelä, Vice President, Passenger Experience and Processes at Finavia.

“The domestic flights gate area is the busiest and most congested part of the airport. Of course, the customer experience is influenced by many factors, but the most important of them is whether the passenger has room to move around and find a place to sit,” said Järvelä.

Based on customer satisfaction monitoring, satisfaction specifically with the comfort of the gate area has been below average.

The monitoring has revealed that, on average, the customer experience has been clearly poorer during the airport rush hours. This is why it has been deemed one of the key areas of development at the airport.

“So we must tackle the greater-than-expected number of passengers now, without waiting for the extra space to be completed. We have changed 10 domestic flight gate areas in the last year,” said Järvelä.