Travelling with children can be nerve-wracking no matter whether you are going near or far.

Although some kids have traveled since birth and are total pros at it, it still is a change from the everyday routine and opens a door for anxiety, uneasiness, rampage even. Some handle it easier, some not so much. Some might have a fear for flying, some just feel agitated inside a plane, away from home and the familiar. Some sense the nervousness from the parents and act upon that. Some run around, fuss and fight. Some sleep from the the moment they enter an airplane.

And some are just cool as a cucumber. They sit back and enjoy the ride.

I interviewed a few ‘cool cucumbers’ and got some first hand tips for successful KIDDIE AIR TRAVEL:

1. Start preparing early
Get your own backpack out. Decide what to bring. Plan ahead.

Pack, unpack, pack. Feel free to do it as many times as necessary. It is a lot of fun!
(parents – always check your child’s belongings before leaving home! You don’t want any unpleasant surprises at the security check).

2. Back snacks
Although airplane food is good (yes, they all agreed on this!) and fun to eat, it’s important to have some own snacks too. It could be fruits, veggies (ready peeled and diced), cheerios, nuts, pretzels etc. Or even something more hearty, if it’s a long flight.

A juice box, small milk carton or water bottle is also a must (but remember that liquids you can add only after the security check).

3. Bring lots to do
Crayons, note/colouring books, games, stickers (everyone’s favorite), magazines, never seen before books etc. Arts & crafts stuff.

All this is easy to fit in a relatively small space and has a great time consuming factor to it. The good old tic-tac-toe is also a great game to play onboard!

4. Don’t forget your cuddly toy or blankie at home

It’s absolutely essential to have something super soft and cosy next to you on those midnight hours when you’re trying to sleep in an unfamiliar environment. If there is no such thing as a favourite soft toy, then bring a warm sweater, small blanket or a pillow instead. Not always is there one for all passengers!

One of the best ways to travel, at any age

5. Take some toys, but not too many or too big.
Some toys are better than others to bring to an airplane.

Toy cars are good, legos are not (you’ll drop and loose them). Large dolls might not be a good idea, but then again Barbies are perfect!
Bring the one you love and play the most with. And it will be nice to have with you all holiday.

6. Get electronical
Don’t underestimate the importance of modern technology! Tablets, portable video games and DVDs… All this equals to its weight in gold when all else has failed. And mom and dads, if you are otherwise particularly strict on the playtime, on the plane it could be a good idea to let loose a little bit. These devices can provide you with the peaceful moment you need.

Any boy’s idea of happy travels!

7. Stay happy!

Tip that all kids agreed on:

Stay positive. Stay happy. Enjoy your flight. Don’t get angry and let us have some candy. Candy is important!

Candy helps!

“A close-up of my desk. During a flight, we constantly monitor our progress by taking notes on passed waypoints, times, fuel consumption and altimeter readings. This is one way of ensuring that the flight is going according to plan.”

“Captain Aarne Suonsivu approaching Amsterdam Schiphol airport in an Airbus 330. This time in a simulator, though. Nevertheless, the highly detailed graphics and hydraulics-assisted motion give an extremely realistic feeling of flying.”

“Sometimes you just capture the moment, like here at Oslo Gardermoen airport.”

Women artisans in a poor Dalit village in India keep themselves warm using blankets donated by Finnair.

In a small impoverished village in the Indian countryside, the ladies are wrapping themselves in blankets to keep out the evening chill. The village, in the eastern state of Odisha, is home to a community of Dalits, or to give them their less savory name, Untouchables, on the lowest rung of the caste ladder.

The straw-roofed mud houses of the village feel like a million miles away from the cabin of a Finnair aircraft, but there is a connection and it has to do with those blankets. Occasionally Finnair renews its cabin fittings and accessories, and it has found various ways of recycling or putting to good use the items it replaces. So the blue and red blankets that once tucked up Finnair passengers are now being used to keep poor Indian villagers warm.

This particular village has another Finnish connection because it’s the target of the NGO and charity Tikau Share, linked to the stylish design shop Tikau in Helsinki where the villagers’ handicrafts are sold. I have visited the village several times and I can vouch for the fact that the incredibly welcoming villagers are truly grateful for the blankets as well as the donated clothes, shoes and toys that Finnair has helped to transport to Delhi, from where the donations are forwarded to Odisha. Tikau Share is also planning and raising funds for a Village House, an all-round community centre for the village.

Visiting the families in their simple and fragile homes, where the roofs need to be replaced after each heavy monsoon rain and where daily staples such as rice are in short supply, is a humbling experience. On the one hand, I am exhilarated as a photographer by the extraordinarily honest and open faces of the villagers and the photographic stories offered by their rustic homes. On the other hand, I am intensely aware of how my expensive 21st century photographic digital toys are so far removed from their primitive yet uncomplicated existence. It’s a slightly confusing and humbling but ultimately inspiring experience. It’s also touching to register the delight of ten year old kids who have never touched a laptop or Play Station when presented with a teeshirt, pair of trousers or shoes from a Finnish donor many thousands of miles away.

There are millions of Indians living in poverty across India, and in a sense these are among the lucky ones. The idea of Tikau Share is not to preach to the villagers about their lifestyles or to drag them kicking and screaming into the 21st century. It’s to support the transition to a degree of sustainable self-sufficiency, providing a level of human dignity that people of their caste are often denied. To achieve this aim, they deserve Finnair’s support, and they’ve certainly got mine.

Ice forms on the Baltic around the islands near Helsinki.

It’s that time of the year again in the UK, my home country. An inch or two of the white stuff and the country plunges into chaos. Schools are closed, country villages are cut off. Home-owners agonize about whether to turn up the thermostat on the central heating by a degree or two.

The British relationship with snow is a very strange thing. Watching the news broadcasts from London, I realise also how little it has changed since the epic snowball fights I enjoyed instead of going to school in the 1960s and 1970s (what an admission!). Just a few specks of snow can cause a delicious national panic, the intensity of which is hard to explain to Nordic types for whom snow is simply an annual fact of life.

When the snow starts to settle in any quantity, everyone, from the smallest toddler to the most elderly pensioner, is caught up in the excitement. We Brits love the softening, magical properties of snow, and we love the crippling chaos it causes. We’re always going on about how we should be better prepared for it, but really we don’t want to be. We know perfectly well what snow looks like and the effects it can have, but we still react with astonishment whenever it appears.

The prospect of snow and a “proper” winter was one of the reasons I came to Finland in the first place many years ago. The idea of the sea freezing, as it does along the Baltic coast, was wonderfully exotic. In fact, it still is, and I spend a lot of time photographing the ships ploughing through the thick slabs of ice and other winter scenes. Finland may be the only country in the world without a single ice-free harbour in a normal winter, which is why air transport is so important.

A country’s economy depends on sound infrastructure and efficient transport systems. Essentially, Helsinki Airport, the only real international airport in the country, has the resources and the expertise, as well as the advanced coordination between different parties, to stay open under the most demanding winter conditions. In addition to the general lack of congestion, it’s another argument in favour of flying via Helsinki. If a flight to or from Helsinki is delayed for weather-related reasons, you can be fairly sure it’s not the weather in Helsinki that’s causing the problem.

Meanwhile, although I still appreciate the aesthetic qualities of winter and the spectacle of the Baltic ice, a lot of the winter novelty has worn off. I’ve often heard it said that you can’t enjoy the intensity of any single season in Finland without the contrasts of the other three. I don’t subscribe to this theory. Twelve months of Finnish summer? Sure, I’ll give it a go!

I have received a lot of comments and messages on my blog about the fear of flying. I had been meaning to write about the topic for a long time, but I hadn’t found the right way to approach it. In her comment, a reader of mine compared flying to a roller-coaster; that’s where I got the idea for this article.

Fear is wisdom. If we didn’t have a sense of fear, our species would have gone extinct long ago. Evolution has made sure that fear – that powerful feeling we have learned from the experiences of our ancestors – is encoded in our genome. Many phobias are still inherited in their original form today. For example, some people are afraid of snakes, while others have a fear of spiders. Most people have a primitive reaction at the very least when a tarantula creeps along their arm. Evolution is an ongoing process, so it is only natural that individual experiences, in addition to inherited ones, also influence fear. These experiences can also be a tool for managing fear.

Fear is a feeling a person experiences subjectively. When asked about the reasons for fear, it may be difficult for someone to explain why they are afraid of snakes, for example, but not spiders. The same is true when it comes to the fear of flying. Often those who fear flying do not give a clear reason, but instead they begin to list different frightening scenarios or simply say that “the plane might fall out of the sky, or something”. A common factor is often the fear that something bad will happen to oneself or one’s child. For this reason, becoming a mother might trigger a fear of flying. (Please don’t stop here, new mothers, keep on reading!)

So, people have a natural need to feel safe.

On a roller-coaster and on a plane, people seek safety by white-knuckling the edge of the car or the arm rest, as though it were the tree branch one might fall from and become a predator’s meal. On a roller-coaster, then, the brave ones are the ones with their hands up in the air. It’s also a sign for others – body language – saying “I’m not afraaaaaaaaid!”.

People also turn to others for safety. The brakeman is wonderful – a teenage girl’s dream. Outside of the amusement park, it could be a police officer or firefighter. A person who is seen as brave and safe is attractive. On this man, even weathered coveralls look good. Add mating instinct into the mix and you’ve found an ideal candidate for a husband. With him, you will be guaranteed a life of security.

On a plane, those seeking a feeling of safety can turn to the cabin crew, as well as the pilot. Cabin crew members are very knowledgeable and know how to relate to the fear of flying. But the best person to turn to for safety may be your spouse or friend sitting next to you. One doesn’t need to know anything about flying if he/she knows how to emnolden others and to give them a sense of security.

Are brakemen, police officers and firefighters brave? Am I brave myself? Brave is usually a word we use to describe another person. He or she does something that I feel is brave. They most likely do not think of themselves as brave when doing their work. I think they are probably thinking that they are just doing their job.

So why do I go on roller-coasters? I think it would be foolhardy to go to an amusement park in the capital of a country where corruption puts ticket revenues right into the owners’ pockets, leaving the equipment rusty, the place dirty and some of the roller-coaster cars without wheels. But I do dare to go on the roller-coaster at Linnanmäki in Helsinki, even if it scares me a little.  I’m not afraid to join the queue to be frightened, because I believe that the amusement park rides have been safely designed and inspected. And, after all, there’s still the brakeman! Subconsciously, I understand that it is safe. The attraction of contraptions like roller-coasters is, however, based on the idea that customers feel they are conquering their fear. I risk going on a ride in which the car creakingly climbs up to dizzying heights and dives down from there at a furious pace towards the ground, only to veer off after the next bend into a frighteningly dark tunnel. After the ride, I step out of the car with my legs shaking slightly from the adrenaline rush. I conquered my fear. I was brave.

After having gone on the ride another twenty-two times that evening, there is no longer that rush of adrenaline. Boring! The brakeman is probably bored too. Should I try going on the adults’ ride next? I realise then that the fear was relative, and my bravery questionable. I have gotten rid of my original fear.

When boarding a flight, you do not need to gather extra courage either. You have made the decision to leave and you recognise that air travel is one of the safest things you can do. In order to be brave, all you have to do is…

Let go of your fear and maybe put your hands up in the air as a sign to others – “I’m not afraid!”.

And enjoy it this time, the next time it might already be boring.

Let’s go!

Jussi