Record number of flights set to arrive in Lapland during Christmas season

One thousand square metre dressing room built for British tourists in Kittilä

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By Tapio Mainio in Kittilä
     
      Carpenters Markku Kuru and Seppo Satta are in a hurry to nail windshield boards onto the walls of the one thousand square metre changing area at the Kittilä airport. The floor of the new hall is still covered with sand, but airport chief Kari Tohmo is confident.
      "Even the Christmas ornaments should be in place when the first charter plane lands in late November. At least that is what the contractor has promised", Tohmo explains.
      The Civil Aviation Administration will rent the dressing area to safari operators, whose British customers will be able to change into their snowmobile overalls in the warmth of the room. Previously, all that was available was a windy outdoor shelter.
     
The storage rooms are filled with thousands of overalls, winter boots, woollen hats, mittens, and helmets.
      The Christmas tourists are transported on snowmobiles from the airport directly to their safari destinations. Every minute in the schedule is programmed, as the majority of the British tourists spend only seven hours in Kittilä.
      "We provide 2,500 snowmobile overalls, ranging from children's sizes to XXXL. Sixty snowmobiles complete with sleighs have been reserved from local entrepreneurs to transport the visitors", reports Arvo Olli, the head of marketing at safari operator Wild North.
     
One planeful amounts to some 230 visitors, but there are an average of ten flights landing at regular intervals each day.
      "Christmas tourism has gotten to be pretty impossible, this sure is big for a dressing room", carpenter Kuru shakes his head in amazement while working on the changing hall.
      "Kittilä may surpass Rovaniemi this year in popularity as a charter destination. According to preliminary figures, 200 charter flights should touch down in Kittilä in December. The same number is expected in Rovaniemi", Tohmo says.
      The airplanes that stick around only for the day are parked in a long line in front of the terminal. New equipment has been acquired for the moving of the aircraft, and a separate equipment hangar is currently under construction.
     
According to preliminary figures, 600 Christmas flights will land at the airports of Lapland and in Kuusamo (slightly further south) this season. Christmas in Lapland will be admired by up to 130,000 tourists. Last year, Lapland was the destination of 450 chartered flights.
      The majority of the visitors are British, but charters also originate from France, Italy, and Russia.
      "Many British tourists will be coming for the second or even the third time. There are seven travel agents in the UK that employ the services of local safari organisers. Wild North handles the majority of the day-trippers. Many of the travel agents have their own British Santa Claus along for the trip", Tohmo explains.
      "We have three safari destinations for day-trippers, of which the Aakenustunturi fell is furthest away. A wilderness restaurant that can seat 200 people is being built there", Olli says.
     
In Kittilä, the number of charter flights will increase by around one quarter from last Christmas. The popularity of Kittilä has come as a surprise for the Civil Aviation Administration as well, and it will expand the 1,700-square-metre airport building next spring.
      "The airport is too cramped. We will build around 2,500 square metres more. The estimated cost of the project is five million euros", relates Martti Oinas, the regional head for Northern Finland at the CAA.
      "In addition, we will build a 400-square-metre arrivals lounge at the Enontekiö airport, as they will receive around 50 charter flights this Christmas", Oinas continues.
      Some 70,000 charter tourists were registered at the Kittilä airport last year, with 140,000 people arriving on scheduled flights. Even on scheduled flights, around one in three passengers were foreigners. Outside the Christmas season, Kittilä does a brisk trade in ski-tourism, as it is the dropping-off point for those going to the Levi and Ylläs resorts.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 24.10.2004

More on this subject:
 BACKGROUND: Day-trippers do not want to queue for passport control

TAPIO MAINIO / Helsingin Sanomat
tapio.mainio@hs.fi