Yle has learned about the risk of closure of the Finnish airport due to the lack of tourists from the Russian Federation

Finland's Lappeenranta Airport, popular with Russian tourists, is facing closure, and the airport has been unable to restore passenger traffic. This was announced on October 21 by the Finnish television company Yle.

According to the published material, the airline's work is under threat due to the policy of the European Union (EU), which does not support the financing of unprofitable airports at the expense of public funds. It is specified that every year for ten years the city has invested about € 12 million in the local airport.

In 2011, the airport was the fifth busiest international airport in Finland, it set a record for the number of passengers -116 thousand people per year. It is noted that more than half of the passengers came from St. Petersburg. Soon in 2014, a sharp decrease in the number of passengers from Russia was reported.

The publication emphasizes that after the purchase of the airport by the city of Lappeenranta and the Regional Union of South Karelia in 2015 from Finavia, the airport's activities were supported at the expense of taxpayers. Immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, total passenger traffic decreased annually, which led to an aggravation of the situation. Today, the airport serves flights to Bergamo, Italy, which I plan to stop soon.

It is claimed that the fate of the airport will be decided before the beginning of December this year. The proposed options are a capital loan, outsourcing of activities, or a complete shutdown of the airport. At the same time, the strategic importance of the airport was discussed.

Northern veto: Finland discusses banning Russians from buying apartments

Who may be affected by the new restrictions and how does this affect the dialogue between Moscow and Helsinki

On the night of September 1, a flash mob was planned to be held in the city in support of the opening of state borders with the Russian Federation. It was planned that people would symbolically line up as a sign of support for those who cannot stand in line at the Narva checkpoint in Estonia in order to enter Russia after the border was closed at the initiative of the Finnish authorities. It is assumed that this will show that trips from Finland to Russia through countries such as Estonia, Norway or Turkey are not accessible to many, because those who wish have to wait their turn to leave the country, also for 18 hours.

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