Runway: the Finnair blog

Travel toes get a soak at the airport spa

Finnair operates about half of the flights at Helsinki-Vantaa airport. The ‘host’ authority at Helsinki is Finavia, from which airlines lease their customer service spaces.

The functioning of airport services is an important part of customer satisfaction. Finnair and Finavia are as closely linked as it’s possible to be at Helsinki airport. The aim is nothing less than to achieve and maintain top class service. We want Helsinki-Vantaa, Finland’s main international airport, to be the best in Europe.

A terminal extension programme is under way at the airport which makes possible excellent and smoothly operating services for as many as 15 million customers and their baggage annually – the kind of capacity we couldn’t even dream of in days gone by.

Already in our service environment, we handle the daily arrivals and departures of tens of thousands of customers, as well as their connections. In the main our customers appreciate the functions of our ground services. They also appreciate the assistance given to connecting passengers in making their connections between flights and departures gates as short as possible.

In January 2009 the number of transit passengers grew by over five per cent compared with January 2008. In total, Helsinki-Vantaa handled 1.3 million transit passengers, transferring between Asian and European flights, in 2008.

In July the first part of the fabulous new terminal extension opens, serving all long haul flights and those to destinations outside the Schengen area. At the same time Finavia will open new security inspection areas for transit passengers, with plenty of new shops and a My City Helsinki restaurant section.

In July Finnair will have the opportunity for the first time to channel transit passengers on the basis of priority for connecting flights. The new guidance system leads passengers quickly and more effectively when there’s a rush to get from gate to gate, although passengers will also be able to take their time when time allows, of course. A fast track option for Business Class customers and Finnair Plus top tier card holders will also be implemented.

In December the rest of the extension will open for use. The new facilities will include a 250 seat via.lounge and a restful spa area, via.spa. The spa will contain four separate saunas, treatment rooms for ‘express’ treatments as well as those of a more leisurely nature, foot treatments of various kinds and a mineral water pool for health baths. The Finnish sauna has a view from the window – as all authentic saunas should – and in this case bathers can look out across the airport’s roll-out apron. All customers waiting for flights can use the via.lounge and via.spa. Business Class and Finnair Plus top tier cardholders can use via.lounge free of charge, and there is no charge for the spa to Platinum cardholders.

Other changes are taking place at Helsinki-Vantaa too. As of August 5, all Finnair, Finncomm and oneworld airline operations will be concentrated at Terminal 2. This will mean that all Finnair traffic from domestic to long haul will operate from one and the same terminal. The older part of the T2 terminal will be used mainly for long haul handling at hall 4, while the bulk of Finnair traffic will pass through the newer, central section of the terminal via hall 2. T1, currently the domestic terminal, will be used by other airlines. Confirmation of these changes and their timetable will be issued in coming weeks.

At as these changes are implemented, the  hall 3 of T2 will undergo modernization work lasting a year, with over 30 new check-in service desks installed. The plan is to reopen this renewed section in March 2009.  Hall 4 will operate as at present until this work is complete, and then will take its turn for modernizations that will convert it into a new, more efficient security check area.

I take note of our customers’ views and hopes for the development needs at Helsinki airport. In the next couple of years we are going to be living through renewals as well as periods of disruptive construction work. But I truly believe that when everything is ready in 2011 the number of our transit passengers will have grown by double percentage figures.

For my own part, I can promise that we’ll do our best, in partnership with our expert friends at Finavia, to provide accurate and timely information about the changes through the different available communications channels. And the end result will be the best airport in Europe – an aspiration that, in two years’ time, will no longer be a mirage on the horizon.

Markku Remes