The manager of Finnish airports, Finavia, reports that Lapland has been fully prepared for a busy winter season, with air traffic volumes expected to be the highest since 2007, and some 500 charter and scheduled flights arriving in Lapland in December.
Finavia says that the steady annual growth in the number of charter flights shows how attractive winter destination Lapland has become. “Travel operators in Lapland have done a lot of work in developing travel products also for the summer season,” says Joni Sundelin, senior vice president at Finavia.”
Lapland visitors first arrived from London to Enontekiö on 25 November, with the majority of tourists coming from Britain. In addition, Alibaba, the world's largest online marketplace company, announced in October 2016 that it will fly 50,000 tourists from China to Rovaniemi next year, of whom 3,000 will make their way to Lapland this winter.
Finavia writes that attracting new routes has been successful in Lapland. Finland is now trending in many ways: Lonely Planet selected Finland among the top three travel destinations in 2017. “We have an excellent opportunity to offer such wonderful service experiences to travellers that they want to come back and also recommend Finland to their friends. In this, cooperation between travel operators plays a significant part”, Sundelin says.