Helsinki-Vantaa Airport starts expansion of Terminal 1, adding seven more gates. The airport management announced that will start upgrading process in October and will end by 2020. According to the airport operator Finnavia, seven new exits will open in the main Finnish airhoe, which will be ready by 2019. Thus, the terminal will expand by 3,350 sq m to 250,000 sq m in 2020.
The development of the airport will be invested 900 million EUR.
If earlier in the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport was mainly directed to long-distance flights, after opening of the new gates should tie Finland to the Schengen countries more closely.
Helsinki-Vantaa Airport is the main international airport of the Helsinki metropolitan region. The airport is located in the city of Vantaa, about 5 km west of Tikkurila, the administrative center of Vantaa and 17.0 km north of Helsinki city center. The airport is operated by Finavia. The airport is the main international gateway to Finland and the busiest airport in the country. It is the 29th busiest airport in Europe and 4th busiest in the Nordic countries in terms of passenger numbers. About 90% of Finland’s international air traffic passes through Helsinki Airport. The airport handled 17.2 million passengers in 2016, including 14.5 million international passengers and 2.7 million domestic passengers. The airport handled 165,430 tonnes of cargo in 2015. On average, the airport handles around 350 departures per day.
