In total, the number of air passengers for all Finavia’s airports fell by 20.1% between January and March this year, prompting the airport operator to offer its tenants and partners ‘significant relief’.

At its busiest airport, Helsinki, the majority of shops and restaurants are closed, however the pharmacy and some kiosks and cafés remain open on reduced hours. There are also a few restaurants at Helsinki Airport that continue to sell takeaway food.

In March, Helsinki Airport’s passenger numbers were down 57.2% compared to the same period the previous year.

Kimmo Mäki, the CEO of Finavia, has said that despite the unrelenting spread of Covid-19, the company has decided to continue the ongoing Helsinki Airport Development Programme ‘for the time being in order to guarantee Finland’s accessibility and competitiveness also in the future’.

FORECASTED IMPACT OF $109M

“The coronavirus pandemic has made itself felt in many ways at Finavia’s airports,” said Mäki. “All of us operating at airports have been worried about the safety of passengers. The epidemic, which became a worldwide pandemic outbreak in only a few weeks, has affected the entire industry in very significant and far-reaching ways. The situation has also had an effect on airlines and companies that operate at airports as well as jobs and investments.”

Kimmo Mäki, the CEO of Finavia, has said that despite the unrelenting spread of Covid-19, the company has decided to continue the ongoing Helsinki Airport Development Programme ‘for the time being in order to guarantee Finland’s accessibility and competitiveness also in the future’.

According to Finavia, its turnover will be impacted by EUR100 million/$109 million due to the fall in traffic.

“We estimate that this year’s total number of passengers may be a third lower than last year’s,” said Mäki. “This is a much more dramatic drop than what air traffic has ever experienced before.

“In order to overcome this challenging situation together with the airport community, we have provided our tenants and partners with significant relief.”

RUNWAY AND TERMINAL CLOSURES

In January of this year, the number of passengers was still growing moderately, following the trend from the previous year, but the rampant spread of the disease in Asia, meant that the number of passengers declined significantly in February, particularly on routes to and from China.

Finavia says it is providing its tenants and partners, such as Dufry (WDF), ‘significant relief’ during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The impact of the pandemic is most obvious in the statistics for March, in which the number of passengers on routes to and from China fell by 95.8% compared to the same time the previous year,” added Finavia.

As the epidemic spread to Europe, European airlines’ demand decreased significantly due to restrictions imposed by the authorities and reduced travel.

In March, there were about 4,000 passengers (-89.5%) on routes to and from Italy and 84,000 passengers (-56.3%) on routes to and from Spain. 298,000 passengers (-55.0%) travelled on domestic flights in March, and the number fell sharply towards the end of March as the travel restrictions imposed by the authorities came into force.

Currently, Helsinki Airport is serving just over 1,000 passengers per day, and the number continues to drop. On 19 March, Finavia closed the check-in and baggage drop-off operations at Terminal 1 at Helsinki Airport and any services located in the lobbies. This means that all remaining flights will be operated through Terminal 2. Runway 3 was closed to air traffic for the time being on 1 April.