Finavia’s route development director Petri Vuori says that airlines are still cautious about opening new routes to provincial airports.
The number of passengers at Turku Airport is believed to reach 100,000 passengers this year. Before corona, in 2019 there were about 450,000 passengers.
– This first flight to Rome is full. It is said that 239 passengers will be traveling on a brand new plane. The number of passengers on other routes, i.e. to Gdansk, Skopje and Riga, has also increased, says Aaltonen.
During the Corona period, there were flights from Turku to Skopje in North Macedonia and Gdansk in Poland almost all the time. However, at the time of the worst disease situation, flights had been ordered to be suspended for two months.
The field in Turku has been open the whole time, because it is an important place in terms of security of supply.
Prudence and balancing the economy
– We are still in the recovery phase. Airlines are primarily bringing back those routes that were absent during the corona. Often they bring a few flights and return to the number that was before the corona, says Vuori.
News about spring flights is expected from the airlines in the near future, as the schedules are usually announced at least three months before the flights start.
