27.5.2009

The Via Helsinki magazine profiles Helsinki, Finland and Helsinki-Vantaa

Via Helsinki is a new magazine published by Finavia. The magazine is an international publication focusing on different aspects of humanity and air travel. It is published in English, and it is available free of charge at Helsinki-Vantaa and other Finnish airports with international traffic.

Each year, 13.4 million passengers travel through Helsinki-Vantaa. Finland?s main airport has become one of the most significant and interesting hub airports in Europe. Of the air traffic coming through Helsinki-Vantaa, 20 per cent is made up of international transit passengers, while as much as 80 per cent of all passengers arriving from Asia change planes at Helsinki-Vantaa and continue their journey to Europe. In the international Skytrax survey, passengers rated Helsinki-Vantaa as the ninth best airport in the world.

In fact, the good air connections to and from Finland are due to the fact that the most direct route between Asia and Europe travels via Helsinki-Vantaa: a population of just over five million would not keep the planes full or the air traffic profitable. Should the Asian traffic peter out, the number of European destinations available from Helsinki-Vantaa would be about half the current selection.

However, there is no reason for ifs and buts. Currently, 1,100 international and 700 domestic flights leave Helsinki-Vantaa every week for more than 120 destinations around the world. Helsinki is a modern and interesting city with flexible connections to Asia and Lapland alike.

This image is enhanced by the Via Helsinki magazine, published from late May by Finavia. Via Helsinki is published in English, and it is available free of charge at Helsinki-Vantaa and other Finnish airports with international traffic. Three issues of the magazine will be published in 2009, and four from then on.

Via Helsinki is an international publication focusing on different aspects of humanity and air travel. It relies on the power of narratives as well as articles and pictures of a high journalistic standard. Besides discussing different travel destinations, the magazine seeks to focus on basic issues of life. It was devised by Mediafocus, a Helsinki-based communications agency specialising in journalistic customer magazines.

The first issue of Via Helsinki contemplates, among other things, the hectic pace of many people?s lives and time. May of us around the world are in a hurry, but what does being in a hurry actually mean? The magazine also has an article of the Municipality of Kaavi in Eastern Finland ? would you believe that there are diamonds to be found in Savo? And, do you know how the mysterious character Rasputin died? A personal profile of the designer of medals for the Beijing Olympics leads us to Asian culture, while an article about the Polar Circle takes us towards Lapland and the City of Rovaniemi.

The maps, columns and small articles in the Via Globe section at the beginning of the magazine tell us what there is to see and experience in the world ? and in Finland. The Via Service section in the latter part of the magazine contains a comprehensive directory of services available at Helsinki-Vantaa.

For further information, please contact:
Editor-in-Chief Irmeli Paavola, Director of Communications, Finavia
+358 9 8277 2002
irmeli.paavola@finavia.fi