Rovaniemi Airport ( fi, Rovaniemen lentoasema) is the third busiest airport in Finland, located in

Rovaniemi Rovaniemi ( , ; sme, Roavvenjárga ; smn, Ruávinjargâ; sms, Ruäʹvnjargg) is a city and municipality of Finland. It is the administrative capital and commercial centre of Finland's northernmost province, Lapland, and its southern part Pe ...

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 ...

, about north of Rovaniemi city centre. The

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at ...

crosses the runway closer to its northern end.

History

The airport was built in 1940 with two grass-surfaced

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 ...

s. During the

Continuation War The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet-Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944, as part of World War II.; sv, fortsättningskriget; german: Fortsetzungskrieg. A ...

it served as an airbase and supply center for German

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...

Facilities

In 2017, the airport served about 580,000 passengers. The main season of charter traffic from

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

and many other European countries lasts from the end of November until the middle of January annually. Many of these flights (especially from Great Britain) are day trip flights, with daytrippers (mostly families with young children) arriving in the morning and going home in the evening on the same day. Russians arrive in January because they celebrate

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

later. In addition to civil traffic the

is also used by

F-18 The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather, twin-engine, supersonic, carrier-capable, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft (hence the F/A designation). Designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part ...

fighter interceptors of ' (

Lapland Air Command The Lapland Air Command ( fi, Lapin Lennosto, abbr. ''LapLsto''; sv, Lapplands flygflottilj) is the peace-time Finnish Air Force unit responsible for the protection of the airspace of northern Finland. The headquarters of the air command is loca ...

). The ' (Air unit of the Frontier guard of Lapland) is also located nearby. General aviation operators and private pilot owners are served by the provision of a dedicated fully enclosed and heated hangar with a curved snow-shedding roof located near to the terminal complex. Rovaniemi Airport is one of three airports in Finland that has

jet bridge 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, ...

s (the other two being Helsinki-Vantaa Airport and Oulu Airport). The airport is managed by

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 ...

. It is connected to the

city centre by an airport taxi and there are also multiple bus connections around Lapland, including to major winter sports centers. Rovaniemi Airport is the third-busiest airport in Finland after

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 ...

and

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 ...

airports. Santa Claus Village and Santa Park are situated within . The airport is located approximately away from Rovaniemi City centre, meaning that it is not far away from many restaurants and hotels. The busiest time for the airport is in the Christmas season, when many people go on Santa Flights.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Norwegian_B737_LN-DYR_at_EFRO_20120209_01

References

External links