AIRPORT REPORT: HELSINKI
Savolainen maintains that Helsinki is ideally placed as a stop-off between Europe and Asia, and believes that once the global economy begins to recover its location will ensure it will be one of the first to benefit.
Indeed, the silver lining for the airport in 2012 came in the form of Helsinki’ s Asian traffic, which continued its rapid growth to 1.8 million passengers, an enviable 8.3 % rise.
This was primarily due to Finnair’ s new direct route to the Chinese city of Chongqing. And the number of direct connections to
“ Our main role here is our hub status between Asia and Europe, which means long-haul network opportunities,” he says.“ Sure, some low-cost carriers do serve Helsinki, but the bells and whistles we offer here doesn’ t really suit their business model.
“ We want to be a good quality, cost-effective airport with the customer and quality service at the centre of what we offer.”
Which airports does he consider to be Helsinki’ s greatest rivals?“ All airports that are bridges or hubs between Europe and Asia are effectively competing with us,” says Savolainen.
We want to be a good quality, cost effective airport with the customer and quality service at the centre of what we offer
Asia will further increase this year as Japan Airlines introduces a new service to Tokyo, and Finland’ s national flag carrier launches routes to Xi’ an and Hanoi in June.
Savolainen admits that Helsinki is confident that these new“ quality routes” will be a success and should ensure that the gateway records an upturn in passenger traffic in 2013 and for the next few years.
“ We are in a very strong position to bridge between Asia and Europe,” explains Savolainen.“ This is, economically, a growing area, and it means that when the global financial situation gets better, we will see growth immediately. In the next five years we anticipate quite good numbers for growth.”
Helsinki does not go out of its way to attract budget airlines – it is certainly not a no-frills airport – but it still has some low-cost traffic. However, Savolainen is a firm believer in long-haul transfer traffic, and thinks this will always be Helsinki’ s main traffic driver.
“ This means Stockholm, Copenhagen and Frankfurt in Europe, the Gulf countries in the Middle East and, more recently, St Petersburg – Pulkovo in Russia, which is investing heavily.
“ Helsinki Airport’ s importance to the Finnish economy, however, means that we have to be the winners of this competition.”
He maintains that Helsinki Airport is changing, adapting and growing by evolution, rather than revolution, and admits that this policy is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
Talking of the future, Savolainen believes that the current gateway could handle up to 20mppa, after which the Finnish government would have to think seriously about“ revolutionary investment and infrastructure”.
Whether this means upgrading the existing gateway or building a new one remains open to debate, but whatever the future holds, one thing remains certain, the search for quality will remain at the heart of Finavia’ s business strategy.
AW
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AIRPORT WORLD / APRIL-MAY 2013