Helsinki Airport reports strong traffic growth in Jan to Feb-2022, but future portents are ominous

Finland is on the north-eastern periphery of Europe and that works to its advantage, in that Europe-Asia flights have the shortest Great Circle distance to and from Helsinki Vantaa Airport, which in turn attracts transfer passengers from elsewhere in Europe.

After two tough years those passengers returned in numbers in Jan-2022 and Feb-2022, but there is still work to be done with seat capacity levels that are still well behind the first two months of 2020. That is partly a result of the lingering COVID outbreak in Asia Pacific generally, and now also a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has prompted airspace closures just where national airline Finnair wants to fly.

Finland has a long border with Russia, has been invaded by it in the past, and has been threatened by it in the last week.

The eventual outcome is uncertain, but it may now be time for both the airport and airline to reappraise their long term strategies.