Smart solutions at Helsinki Airport

Abstract

The competitive advantage of Helsinki Airport is its location: the shortest route from Asia to North America and Europe is via Helsinki. Therefore it is under constant, innovative development, profiling itself as one of the leading transfer airports in the world. This means effective, reliable and high-quality service in all time frames for both passengers and airlines. The airport has worked for a long time to achieve a user-friendly layout of its terminal, including its interior design. As Finland has been a leading country of many technological innovations, the airport has tested and piloted new technological systems in order to improve the smoothness of travelling, as well as to ensure that flights can operate with minimum delay. The airport is implementing several solutions, especially critical for transferring passengers. Some examples are optimisation of the flow of transfer passengers, automated border crossing, winter maintenance of runways, smart apron solutions and effective baggage handling. However, strong leadership is still the key to successful innovations.