The number of passengers at Finnish airports marked a sharp rise in April year-on-year.
The strong increase is not due to the fact that air traffic has recovered but to the statistical effect of comparing the figures with those of April 2020, a month in which air operations were practically paralyzed due to the eruption of the global coronavirus pandemic.
According to Statistics Finland, altogether 154,783 passengers flew through Finnish airports in April 2021, which was 512% more than twelve months earlier.
There were 114,360 passengers at Helsinki Airport and a total of 40,423 passengers at other domestic airports. Helsinki Airport accounted for 74% of all passengers at domestic airports.
"The exceptionally high relative growth in passenger numbers is due to the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic one year ago which temporarily closed air traffic altogether," explains the Finnish statistical office.
In April 2021, the number of passengers at Helsinki Airport increased by 433% and the combined number of passengers at other domestic airports grew by 968% compared to April 2020.
Despite the high growth rates, the number of air traffic passengers was still around 90% lower than in April 2019, the most recent comparable period before the pandemic.
Source: Statistics Finland.
International flights
Of the passengers 50% came from international flights and 50% from domestic flights. The share of passengers on international flights was 66% at Helsinki Airport and 3% in total at other domestic airports.
In April 2021, air freight and mail transport totaled 10,252 tonnes, which was 31% more than one year earlier. In total, 99.7% of the tonnes passed through Helsinki Airport and 99% were transported in traffic between Finland and foreign countries.
Altogether 5,344 tonnes of the transported volume of goods were outgoing and 4,908 tonnes were incoming.
