Christmas in the Arctic

Never before has the northern parts of Finland welcomed this big numbers of tourists. According to Finavia, the Finnish aviation authority, charter planes from all over Europe have landed in the Lapland airports with a record-high frequency.

The Finnish holiday resorts report excellent winter conditions, abundant snow, prepared slopes, hot saunas and lots of Santas.

This year, also German national air carrier Lufthansa started direct flights to the Land of Santa.

“We are delighted to be able to expand our presence in Finland with the establishment of flights between Munich and Kittilä, especially as Munich Airport connects our passengers to a large number of destinations to more than 90 European countries and nearly 20 destinations in North America and Asia,” Paulo Akihiko Yoshikawa, Country Manager Lufthansa Finland, says in a press release.

The Munich-Kittilä route is operated on weekly basis.

The December flight schedules of the airport of Kittilä, Ivalo and Rovaniemi show that there are charter planes coming in from several countries and more than 15 cities, among them Paris, London, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, Barcelona, Munich and more, figures from Finavia’s flight schedules show. The biggest number of tourists come from the UK.

According to Finavia, the airports in Lapland are in excellent condition for increasing air traffic and tourism. In the period 2014-2016, EUR 35 million are invested in the regional flight infrastructure. Recently, Finavia has completely revamped the passenger experience at Kittilä, Rovaniemi and Ivalo airports.

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In 2014, more than 2,35 million tourists visited Lapland, figures from Patchwork Barents show. And a lion’s share of them visit the region in connection with Christmas. That makes Lapland one of the most popular tourist destinations in all of Scandinavia.