Weekly meeting 28 – company/community visit to Rovaniemi Airport flight control

The Rotary Club of Rovaniemi and the Rotary Club of Santa Claus gathered at the Rovaniemi air traffic control premises for a joint weekly meeting to hear how air traffic control works in our area.

Tapio Nurmela, director of Fintraffic’s air traffic control network, welcomed the Rotarians and opened the event.

Head of Air Traffic Control Suvi Niinimäki told interesting facts about the operation of Rovaniemi Airport and the work of an air traffic controller. Rovaniemi Airport is the third busiest airport for passenger flights in Finland. Rovaniemi airport is an Air Force base and now also a NATO field.

By December 2023, Rovaniemi had direct two-way connections to 24 different cities in Europe. In December 2023, in addition to route and charter flights, 81 private flights operated in Rovaniemi. The growing attraction of the Rovaniemi and Lapland Tourism Region can be seen in the increased activity of the airport. The airport’s functions are further developed in order to meet the needs of the increase in the number of tourists.

After the information package, we were able to visit the air traffic control tower, where we went through the operations of air traffic control during takeoffs and landings, and heard that air traffic control remains operational in a situation such as 24/7.

The discussion and questions about the operation of air traffic control progressed briskly throughout the interesting visit.

Thank you very much Suvi Niinimäki and Tapio Nurmela for the great arrangements of our visit.