Passengers at Finnish airports hit a record low in 2020

The number of passengers at Finnish airports remained at a record low in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the Finnish airport operator (Finavia), last year airports served a total of 6,400,583 passengers, which is almost 20 million less than in the previous year. The number decreased by 75% compared to 2019.

“At the beginning of 2020, air travel started very briskly as usual. In January and February, we saw a further 2% increase in passenger numbers. In March, the global Covid-19 pandemic halted the growth in air travel and travel volumes plummeted. During the year, it became very clear that the situation would not change quickly,” says Petri Vuori, Finavia’s Vice President of Sales and Route Development. 

In 2020, a total of 5 million passengers travelled from Helsinki Airport (21.9 million in 2019), of which 4 million were international passengers. The number of passengers at Helsinki Airport fell by 77% from the previous year.

International transfer travel, which has enabled the airport's rapid growth in recent years, fell by 80%. The number of passengers with connecting international flights was 713,000 (compared with 3,571,900 in 2019).

Regional airports

According to Finavia, passenger volumes haven’t been this low at Helsinki Airport since the 1980s.

At regional airports, the total number of passengers decreased by 68% to 1.3 million.

Direct international flights to many regional airports were suspended, reducing the share of international passengers by 72% to 334,650.

At Lapland airports, domestic passengers brightened up slightly an otherwise weak year. The airports at Kajaani, Kokkola-Pietarsaari, Kemi-Tornio, Jyväskylä and Joensuu were closed for part of the year due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation.