Oulu Airport (; fi, Oulun lentoasema, sv, Uleåborgs flygplats) is located in

Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

, south-west of the city centre. The airport is the second busiest in Finland after Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, as measured by the number of passengers (ca. 1.1 million in 2018). There are around 20 daily flights to

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

. Oulu Airport is also extensively used by the

Finnish Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , equipment = 159 , equipment_label ...

for training purposes and the managing body of the airport is

Finavia Finavia Oyj, formerly the Finnish Civil Aviation Administration, is the public limited company responsible for maintaining and developing Finland's airport network. Finavia manages and develops 20 airports around the country, 18 of which primari ...

. Oulu Airport has offered free wireless network access for passengers since May 2007.

History

The construction of the airport runways in Oulunsalo began in 1949 and was completed in 1953 after the previous airport in Oritkari became too outdated for modern aircraft. In 1953 the airport only consisted of

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

runways and it wasn't until 1958 that the terminal and ATC building were built and the runways were paved.

Finnair Finnair ( fi, Finnair Oyj, sv, Finnair Abp) is the flag carrier and largest airline of Finland, with its headquarters in Vantaa on the grounds of Helsinki Airport, its hub. Finnair and its subsidiaries dominate both domestic and international ...

back then "Aero" operated routes from the airport with DC-3 aircraft and started flights with

Sud Aviation Caravelle The Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle is a French jet airliner produced by Sud Aviation. It was developed by SNCASE in the early 1950s and made its maiden flight on 27 May 1955. It included some de Havilland designs and components developed f ...

jets from

in 1964. The current terminal building was built to replace the old one in 1973 and expanded/renovated in 2002 and 2011 with the old one being demolished in the fall of 2005. The second runway of the airport was removed in the early 2000s and the current ATC tower was built in 1998.

Facilities

Terminal

Interior of Oulu Airport Terminal 20170605

Interior of Oulu Airport Terminal 20171007 04

The old terminal of the airport was demolished in 2005 for more apron space and a major extension of the main terminal was completed in September 2011. Four new

jetbridge A jet bridge (also termed jetway, jetwalk, airgate, gangway, aerobridge/airbridge, skybridge, finger, airtube, expedited suspended passenger entry system (E-SPES), or its official industry name passenger boarding bridge (PBB)) is an enclosed, ...

gates (gates 13–16) were constructed and the main terminal was expanded by , raising the capacity of the airport to 1.5 million passengers per year. The terminal has three cafes, one before security and two in the gate area which also has a bar "Oluthuone Toppila" and a duty-free shop. There's also a designated smoking area and a grand piano that can be played by visitors.

Runway

Oulu Airport has one

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concrete ...

, 12/30, which is long and wide. Runway 12 is equipped with Category II

Instrument landing system In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...

. The runway was renewed in summer 2017.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Ground transportation

}), University
www.oulunjoukkoliikenne.fi
, Every 15 minutes

Incidents and accidents

* Finnair Flight 405 was hijacked from

on September 30, 1978. The Hijacking was resolved without any injuries or fatalities and the hijacker, 37-year-old Aarno Lamminparras was arrested at his home in

the next day after he had received his ransom demands. A Finnish movie

The Hijack That Went South ''The Hijack That Went South'' ( fi, Kaappari) is a 2013 Finnish drama film directed by Aleksi Mäkelä. The film is based on real events, the 1978 Oulu Hijacking. Cast * Kari Hietalahti – Aarno Lamminparras * Aake Kalliala – Captain Raj ...

is based on the events of the hijacking by Lamminparras.

References

External links

* *
AIP Finland – Oulu Airport
* * {{authority control Airports in Finland

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

International airports in Finland