Flying into Inari within the far north of Finland felt like touchdown on the finish of the world.
In each route, timber and snow. From time to time, we acquired a glimpse of warmly lit cabins, and sometimes sprawling resorts, dotted amongst the timber.
It was snowing, and the temperature hovered round 5 levels under zero. As we touched down on the icy runway, I’ll admit I felt a flicker of concern concerning the stopping energy of the Finnair Airbus A321 that had introduced us up from Helsinki.
However Ivalo Airport was effectively ready, and the touchdown was easy and uneventful. We rolled gently to the top of the two,500-metre runway, slowing steadily because the pilots averted heavy braking within the snowy situations.
An up-and-coming vacation spot
Ivalo Airport is the gateway to Inari, Finland’s largest municipality by space, but additionally essentially the most sparsely populated. A part of Finnish Lapland, it affords a wealth of winter experiences, simply with out the elves or the person in crimson.
It is a winter wonderland for the extra discerning traveller: fantasy-level snowfall, breathtaking landscapes, and infinite potentialities for exercise—or inactivity. Husky sledding, snowmobiling, snowboarding, snowboarding, reindeer herding—Inari has all of it, after which some.
If you happen to want to loosen up and easily absorb the surroundings, you’re in luck. Saunas abound on this frozen land. On the lovely Star Arctic Lodge, the place we stayed, some cabins featured non-public saunas, whereas others had full glass ceilings for aurora watching proper out of your mattress.
Right here in Saariselkä, lodging choices are plentiful, however the Star Arctic is tremendous handy for the ski slopes and for the doorway to the longest toboggan run within the nation. Plummeting down Kaunispää hill, it descends 1.8 km deep into the forest, dropping round 180 metres.
Nonetheless you select to get out of your resort, as quickly as you do, the panorama will take your breath away. Inari is wild, exhilarating, bleak, terrifying and jaw-droppingly lovely suddenly.
In contrast to extra widespread Lapland locations like Rovaniemi, it has not suffered from overtourism. In reality, it’s in all probability some of the unspoiled locations left in Western Europe.
“That’s Russia over there,” my snowshoeing teacher famous, pointing on the infinite sea of pine timber stretching so far as the attention may see. “After all, you possibly can’t see the borders from right here,” she chuckled.
Inari has develop into a rising star for journey seekers eager to expertise the actual Lapland. Final winter, 9 worldwide airways operated seasonal companies to Ivalo Airport, together with a brand new route from British Airways – its most northerly vacation spot up to now.
Finnish Lapland, generally, is changing into more and more widespread 12 months on 12 months. Throughout the Finavia-managed airports of Rovaniemi, Kittilä, Ivalo, Kuusamo, and Kemi-Tornio, 1.8 million passengers arrived in 2024, up virtually 20 per cent on the 12 months earlier than.
How do they preserve the runways clear?
With common temperatures plummeting as little as -18 levels and round 200 days of snow a 12 months, how can these airports safely deal with all these flights?
Again in Helsinki, I caught up with Finavia’s Pyry Pennanen, head of airfield upkeep, to seek out out extra about what goes into protecting airports working in such excessive situations.
“We mainly promise summer-like situations in our runways year-round,” says Pennanen. “However in Helsinki, winter is a really actual factor.”
Helsinki is a distinct proposition from Ivalo. Dealing with a median of 350 departures a day, it’s an necessary worldwide hub, with a number of flights touchdown and taking off each hour. With round 100 days of snow a 12 months, protecting the runway clear is crucial to sustaining Helsinki’s status as an airport that runs like clockwork.
“To maintain the plane on schedule, we now have 13 minutes to clear the runway, however we will do it in 11,” Pennanen explains. “Essentially the most we now have to do is round as soon as per hour if it’s actually snowing, however on the worst days, it may be as soon as each 20 minutes.”
Delivering this speedy clearance is a crew of round 15 machines that each one head out collectively to make the three,500-metre runway secure. The crown jewels of this weird ballet of beasts are the Vammas PSB 5500 sweeper blowers, developed in partnership with Helsinki Airport.
These 31-tonne monsters stand 3.7 metres tall and stretch an enormous 25 metres lengthy. They’ll clear a 5.5 metre span of runway in simply 11 minutes, because of their distinctive trifecta of snow-clearing options.
Designed to plough, sweep and blow (therefore the PSB within the identify), the method begins with a spring-loaded innovative on its 9 metre plough, protecting contact agency on uneven surfaces. Behind that, a dense broom manufactured from stiff metallic bristles sweeps up any cussed ice on the bottom. Lastly, the highly effective jet air blower shoots free snow and ice away from the runway at speeds of greater than 400 km an hour.
Becoming a member of the convoy is a terrifying-looking machine, a self-propelled snow blower made by Overaasen in Norway. A towering 4.5 metres tall, this 1,500-horsepower behemoth can smash even essentially the most cussed ice off surfaces, clearing as much as 10,000 tonnes an hour and casting the snow 35 metres away from the runway.
“Essentially the most difficult situations are when we now have freezing rain,” says Pennanen. “When it’s minus ten and the freezing rain remains to be falling, it’s very troublesome to cope with.”
In these situations, the expansive de-icer comes into play. Spraying potassium formate on the runway floor will soften the ice in below an hour, and preserve the floor ice-free for a number of hours past. The chemical is instantly decomposed and comprises no nitrogen, making it secure for the setting.
Smaller beasts like wheel loaders, tractors, lorries and chemical sprayers additionally assist preserve the runways clear. In all, Finnaiva’s fleet in Helsinki spans round 200 autos that work from October to Might. Within the months in between, the crew carries out important upkeep on the autos to maintain them mission-ready for the approaching winter.
Within the Arctic Circle, situations are much more excessive
In Finnish Lapland, snow normally covers the bottom from early November to late Might (though it was worryingly late to reach in some components final winter). Throughout the area, you possibly can count on from 25 cm to as a lot as a metre of snow on the bottom all through the winter.
With over 200 days of snow in a typical 12 months, Finavia’s Lapland airports have their work minimize out. But, as an organization, Finavia has by no means needed to shut an airport on account of inclement climate, and the variety of cancelled or delayed flights is minimal.
Up within the Arctic Circle, Ivalo Airport sees extra snow than most.
“We function in winter situations for seven months,” says Jarmo Pyhäjärvi, Ivalo Airport supervisor. “We’re essentially the most northerly airport within the European Union, and we function in Arctic situations.”
Like Helsinki, Ivalo Airport has a fleet of equipment to maintain the runway and taxiways clear. These embrace plough-sweep-blow models, excessive energy snow blowers, tractors, brush blowers and extra.
As a result of the airport is so small, its workers headcount is low. Within the winter, it doubles from its summer time degree of 25 staff to round 50. Fifteen of those individuals will probably be skilled to work on upkeep, protecting the airport away from ice and snow.
“Most of the workers could have a double position,” says Finavia’s communications supervisor Elina Suominen. “One minute they could be checking in a bag, the following they’re doing safety, or driving a snow plough.”
Seeing these large snow-clearing beasts in motion was astounding. The sheer energy of the autos and the unbelievable quantity of snow they transfer is unbelievable, with clearing operations carried out not at a sluggish plod, however at speeds of 40 to 50 km an hour.
Throughout all its airports, Finavia makes use of sunken sensors to watch the situations on the runway. Tiny modifications may be tracked, giving the operator early warning of incoming climate, typically six to eight hours upfront.
As with Helsinki, it’s not a lot the snowfall that’s an issue, however relatively the temperature itself. When the freezing rain hits in Ivalo, the decrease variety of flight arrivals means their technique for clearance is barely totally different.
“We do what we name precision administration upkeep, which signifies that the runway is cleared simply earlier than the flight is available in,” explains Suominen. “The snow protects the runway from the freezing rain, and we let it work as a protect and solely take it off on the final second. This manner we need not use any chemical compounds.”
Pyhäjärvi remembers a winter in 1999 when the temperature dropped to an eye-watering minus 50 levels. The latest excessive temperature occasion, in 2023, noticed the mercury drop to minus 35. Even then, the airport cancelled only one solitary flight, sustaining all different operations as regular.
Amazingly, Ivalo Airport does all this with net-zero emissions. Within the final 10 years, the airport has minimize its emissions by 98 per cent by means of the usage of renewable power. The remaining two per cent is offset by means of permitted programmes. Its snow-clearing equipment all runs on biofuels.
Innovating for even safer Arctic Circle flights
Corporations like Finavia are important in growing the applied sciences and gear required to maintain the world’s most excessive airports open all 12 months spherical.
Most not too long ago, Ivalo Airport has labored with a lot of Finnish firms to check autonomous snow-clearing operations. Working with Nokian Tyres, snow elimination gear producer Vammas (Fortbrand), power firm Neste and equipment producer Valtra, they developed a brand new idea for optimising snow elimination at distant airports.
The imaginative and prescient is that, when airports like Ivalo are closed for the evening, or working on a skeleton crew, and the snow begins to fall, an autonomous tractor will spring to life. Utilizing optimised, predefined waylines, the tractor will clear the runway of snow, making it secure for the following airplane to land. If it’s working low on gasoline, it’s going to refuel itself utilizing low-emission biodiesel.
Pilot initiatives have been very promising, though the autonomous tractors aren’t getting used but. Nonetheless, Finavia is assured of success in the long run.
Additionally testing autonomous operations is fellow Arctic Circle operator Swedavia, supervisor of Sweden’s airports. This winter, it has examined eight PSB machines in autonomous mode, and it’s eager to roll this out to precise operations.
“We’re nonetheless within the testing part, however this winter we now have made main steps ahead,” says Ali Sadeghi, chief asset officer of amenities and programs at Swedavia Airports. “These additions to our snow clearance fleet are a strategic step and can assist us make Swedavia’s snow clearance extra secure, environment friendly and predictable in addition to local weather pleasant.”
Like Finavia, Swedavia has not needed to shut an airport due to dangerous climate for a really very long time. “Stockholm Arlanda Airport has a superb file of coping with snow,” provides Sadeghi. “We have now by no means closed the airport on account of snow or dangerous climate in over 60 years.”
Subsequent door in Norway, Oslo Airport undertook intensive testing of autonomous ploughs for over a 12 months, deploying them in every day operations in 2021. As much as six huge machines transfer concurrently, all with no driver onboard, managed both from a command car or from the consolation of an workplace desk.
Powered by cloud-based software program referred to as the Yeti Autonomy Service Platform (YASP), developed by Yeti Transfer, the autos are related in order that they know the place to go and what to do. There are excessive hopes that such developments may make snow clearance operations much more eco-friendly sooner or later.
“YASP finally cuts gasoline consumption and emissions,” John Emil Halden, COO of Yeti Transfer, tells Enterprise Norway. “Our answer optimises energy use by guaranteeing operations are constant always. Additionally, well-planned operations with autonomous autos will scale back the driving wanted to finish the job, and fewer autos are wanted general.”
As a traveller, I stay in awe of those unbelievable airports and their means to maintain flying whatever the situations. And I’m grateful, as a result of with out airports like Ivalo, it wouldn’t be really easy to find the wonders of the really unspoilt corners of the world.