Finavia will divest the land and property it owns at Kauhava Airport to the Southern Ostrobothnia-based Kasvuyrittäjät, which will acquire them on behalf of a company to be founded. The transaction still requires approval from Finavia's General Meeting.
"The Finnish military has been an important customer to us at our network airports. As the military is discontinuing its presence in Kauhava, it was no longer meaningful for Finavia to continue the operations at the airport because of the lack of customers. That is why we are happy that this group of Southern Ostrobothnia-based growth entrepreneurs has decided to continue the development of the airport area as part of their business. We also consider it to be a good thing that Jyväskylä Airport will get more flight operations of the Finnish Air Force and will contribute to the operating preconditions of commercial air traffic" says Joni Sundelin, the director responsible for Finavia's airport network.
After the Kauhava shutdown, Finavia's airport network will consist of 24 airports. There is no regular passenger traffic to the airports in Malmi, Halli, Utti and Varkaus.
On 28 February 2014, Finavia announced that it had implemented negotiations with the staff of Kauhava airport, with the result that the duties of the staff will stop by the end of this year, or at the beginning of 2015 by the latest. Whenever possible, Finavia will offer new tasks to the staff at other Finavia locations.
About Kauhava Airport
The grass field of Kauhava Airport was completed in 1929 as a military flight training base for the Finnish Air Force. The first actual runway was built in 1960. Kauhava Airport acted as a training site of the Air Force until 2014. In addition to military aviation, the airport has been used for general-purpose aviation.
In 2013, a total of approximately 5,700 aircraft landed at Kauhava Airport.
