Number of travelers at Finnish airports still far from pre-pandemic levels

The Finnish air traffic and airport sector remains far from its performance prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to Statistics Finland, a total of 248,337 passengers flew through Finnish airports in June 2021, which was many times more than one year ago.

However, this great year-on-year growth is not a reason for satisfaction in the industry, but rather a statistical consequence of the immense disaster caused by the pandemic in 2020. The number of travelers is still 89% fewer than in June 2019.

"The exceptionally high relative growth in the number of passengers compared to the year before is caused by the collapse of air traffic due to the coronavirus pandemic one year ago," explains Statistics Finland.

Last June there were 202,345 passengers at Helsinki Airport and a total of 45,992 passengers at other domestic airports. Helsinki Airport accounted for 81% of all passengers at domestic airports.

International flights

In June 2021, the number of passengers at Helsinki Airport was 90% lower and the combined number of passengers at other domestic airports 84% lower than in June 2019.

69% of the passengers were from international flights and 31% from domestic flights. The share of passengers on international flights was 81% at Helsinki Airport and 17% in total at other domestic airports.

In June 2021, air freight and mail transport totaled 12,116 tonnes, which was 18% more than one year earlier. In total, 99% of the tonnes passed through Helsinki Airport and 98% were transported in traffic between Finland and foreign countries.

Altogether 6,450 tonnes of the transported volume of goods were outgoing and 5,666 tonnes were incoming.