Finavia is likely to close one or two of its regional airports and privatise another two in the near future as it strives to make its network of gateways more profitable, its senior vice-president Joni Sundelin has disclosed.
Speaking to FlightGlobal during the World Routes conference in Chengdu, Sundelin says the Finnish airport operator, which privatised Lappeenranta airport this year, is “in the process of discussion of selling more [airports]”, adding: “Most probably there will be one or two shutdowns [as well].”
The airport executive says he is unable to disclose the names of the airports that may be affected but says that “hopefully [in the] first half of next year [we will] get some progress”.
Finavia currently operates 22 airports across the country. Asked how many airports it would be ideal for Finavia to have, long term, Sundelin gives a figure of “10 to 12”, including Helsinki. At that point, the network would be “more or less, round about” profitable, he indicates.
“Maybe I would say with 12 [airports] we would still be in loss depending on how we can develop,” he adds.
Sundelin says that currently only Helsinki Vantaa and two other undisclosed regional airports in Finavia’s network are “EBITDA profitable”.
This article has been updated to add the phrase “discussion of” to the quote in the third paragraph, so that it precisely matches the interview recording. Additionally, context has been added to the fourth paragraph, to clarify that the “10 to 12” figure was given in response to a question on the ideal long-term size of Finavia’s network
Source: Cirium Dashboard
