AIRPORT REPORT: HELSINKI bus gates and immigration and security enhancements to ensure that it can continue to offer impressive 35-minute connection times for transfer passengers.
Ground transportation to the airport is also set for a major boost, with the anticipated 2015 opening of a new high-speed train service to downtown Helsinki.
And it is not only the Quality Hunters initiative which proves Helsinki is on the ball when it comes to online communication with its passengers – the airport also won SimpliFlying’ s Best Airport on Social Media in 2012.
“ We like to think that smooth travelling starts online,” says Markus Haapamäki, head of social media at Finavia.“ What we would like to see in our social media channels is an interaction with our passengers to improve their travel experience.
“ But we also want to share accurate information with the public, allowing people to become aware of who we are and what is on offer for them when they get to Helsinki and any of our other Finnish airports.
“ The best result has got to be if we can invent something new via interaction with our passengers via our social media channels.“ Quality Hunters was born out of our decision along with Finnair to hire eight people to travel the world and come up with suggestions for making air travel more convenient. This has now snowballed into a truly global community.”
Helsinki is certainly out to impress its business travellers, with Savolainen saying the airport wants to do more for its hard-working passengers.
There are already neat little touches around the airport, such as wireless charging points for passengers’ mobile phones, a hairdressers, and art exhibitions for those with a longer wait between flights.
The airport’ s free Wi-Fi is a huge success, too, with the number of users increasing by an impressive 3,000 % in four years. There are 30 times more users now than there were in January 2009, and the figure has rocketed by 168 % in the last 12 months.
There is also Suvanto, a new lounge introduced in May last year. Finavia, with partners such as Clear Channel, launched the concept, giving passengers separate spaces to work and relax.
There are currently three Suvanto lounges in the airport and they each provide ergonomic workstations, as well as power points for various electronic devices.
Traffic It is fair to say that the gateway’ s passenger numbers were not great last year, with a slight decline on 2011 figures. The dip was particularly alarming in the final quarter of the year with a 2.3 % fall, meaning the final total dropped just short of the 15 million mark. However, the airport still maintains it is in a good position – both economically and geographically speaking – to see growth in the coming years.
AIRPORT WORLD / APRIL-MAY 2013 21