Mainland Finland airports to operate again at least part of the day

Doubts over whether Helsinki-Vantaa will close down at 15:00

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Nearly all the Finnish airports are to be opened by midday today, the Finnish aviation authority Finavia reports. For example, Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport has already been opened to air traffic.
      At present it is stated that Finland’s main hub will be kept open until 3 o’clock in the afternoon. The situation after that will be worked out during the course of this morning.
      The airlines are yet to announce how they will operate in this situation.
     
The only exception to the airports opened this morning is the Mariehamn Airport of the semi-autonomous Åland Islands, which was closed again at 9 a.m.
      Finnish airspace is open until further notice. Finavia will post an update on the situation on its website later this morning.
      The aviation authority also encourages passengers to monitor the Internet sites of their airlines.
      With regard to the flights to be operated today, Finavia asks passengers to contact their airlines for confirmation.
     
The Finnish national carrier Finnair announced on Tuesday that it would cancel today’s flights scheduled for before 15:00.
      The company said, however, that it will be in a constant state of readiness to commence its flight activities at a short notice.
      The Finnish low-cost airline Blue1, in turn, announced yesterday that it would cancel today’s departures until 16:00.
      Early this morning the company told the Finnish News Agency STT that no changes will be made to this decision despite the opening of the airports. Further announcements with regard to today’s flights with Blue1 are expected later in the morning.
     
Finavia decided already earlier that Finnish airspace would be re-opened for international overflights.
      Flights will be permitted in the height of around 9.5 kilometres, above the ash occurrence.
      On Tuesday the Transport Safety Agency (TRAFI) issued international instructions with regard to restrictions to air traffic.
      Eurocontrol and the European Commission have developed a three-stage classification strategy, on which decisions to issue or remove restrictions will be based.
      The classification strategy itself is based on ash predictions issued by a local meteorological office in London.
      The predictions that cover a span of 18 hours will be updated every six hours.
      The Finnish meteorological Institute’s ash predictions will be used to provide pilots with additional information.
     
The Finnair flights that were cancelled because of the volcanic activity in Iceland can be rebooked for a later date this year but not past November 30th.
      This can be done by contacting Finnair or the travel agency that sold the ticket.
      If one has a scheduled departure on April 25th or before, it can still be cancelled for a full refund.
      To cancel a flight, all one has to do is to provide Finnair with a reimbursement form that can be obtained for example from the Finnair website.
     
On Monday Finnair took the first group of passengers stuck in Helsinki to Berlin by ferry and coach.
      Every available seat was filled.
      The travel route was from Helsinki to Tallinn by sea and from Tallinn to Berlin by bus.
      A second group was scheduled for departure on Tuesday evening. The passengers who chose this option will only be taken as far as Berlin. Thereafter, they are on their own.

More on this subject:
 Finnish Air Force lifts flight restrictions
 Opinions of experts differ on impact of volcanic ash on economy

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Volcano: air traffic restrictions for several days (UPDATED) (16.4.2010)
  Finnish airspace opened briefly on Monday (20.4.2010)

Links:
  Helsinki-Vantaa Update 21.4.2010
  FINAVIA - Updates on the airport and airspace arrangements

Helsingin Sanomat