The CAA believes that the Finnish airport network is a
good and efficient organisation, as are the national road
and railway networks, but with the difference that it is
the users who pay for the airport network whereas the other
networks are paid for by the taxpayers collectively. There
are five small airports running scheduled flights which
belong to the Finnish airport network and which do not bring
it any added financial value. In addition, the CAA maintains
Finland’s flight training and leisure flying centre
at Malmi Airport. Closing these airports would improve the
CAA’s profits by about 5 million euros almost immediately.
Such measures would have no effect on the charges for other
airports because Finnish airport and air navigation fees
are already among the lowest in Europe and the lowest of
even the efficient Nordic countries. An improvement in our
profits would give our owner – the government –
a slightly larger dividend and allow for a minuscule decrease
in the general level of taxation. The choice is a political,
not a commercial one.
