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Busy in the skies towards Lapland

Charter planes are approaching the airports in Ivalo, Kittilä and Rovaniemi.

This screenshot of flightradar24 taken Sunday morning shows how airplanes from Great Britain are queuing up for landing at Rovaniemi, Ivalo and Kittilä airports. 80 aircrafts brought in 15,000 passengers this weekend.

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“All the British tourists visiting this weekend cause traffic jam for us, that is of course positive, says CEO of Lapland Safaris Jyrki Niva to YLE Lapland

The tourist company has some 500 employees working from earli morning till late night this weekend.

Successfully marketing Lapland as Santa Claus’ home, the tourist industry in northern Finland has managed to develop several destinations in addition to Rovaniemi. Both the airports in Kittilä and Ivalo are now receiving more Santa Claus visitors. 

Approximately 400 charter flights will arrive in Lapland in December, according to Finavia. Rovaniemi, officially named to be Santa Claus international airport, traditionally has been the busiest airport, Kittilä is this year taking the No. 1 place when number of charter aircrafts is counted.

Kittilä gets 150 flights while Rovaniemi gets 120. Some 60 flights have been scheduled to both Enontekiö and Ivalo, while 10 charter flights will arrive in Kuusamo.

In addition, thousands of visitors are flying in to Lapland with the normal scheduled flights by Finnair, SAS and Norwegian. 

The majority of Christmas tourists come from Great Britain. Airports are also expecting flights from the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Romania, France, and during New Year also from Russia. 

Santa himself? Well… according to this promotion video posted by Finnavia, Finland’s airport authorities, he already departed from Rovaniemi airport for his great Christmas journey on December the 3rd.