Finnair had announced last year to offer direct flights from Helsinki to Longyearbyen for 3 months in summer 2016. The tickets had been for sale for a while already, but as it turned out now, the Norwegian aviation authority is unable to grant permission for these flights due to a convention between Norway and Finnland from 1978 that regulates air traffic between these two countries. It has later been replaced by an agreement that regulates air traffic in the whole European Economic Area (EEA), but as Svalbard is not part of the EEA, the older convention is still in force here. One is left with the impression that the whole thing is a bureaucratic slip or a fools day joke if this post had been out a day earlier, but it is a fact for the time being.
Finnair has announced not make use of the opportunity to file an official complaint, which might still have led to a short-term change of the legal situation. The company has rather decided to cancel the flights and to re-imburse customers who have already bought a ticket.
The tourism industry in Longyearbyen had already been looking forward to about more 3000 guests during a locally otherwise rather calm season.
Welcome to Longyearbyen airport: currently not for Finnair.
This and other publishing products of the Spitsbergen publishing house in the Spitsbergen-Shop.
Norwegens arktischer Norden (1): Spitzbergen
Photobook: Norway's arctic islands. The text in this book is German. [shop url="https://shop.spitzbergen.de/en/polar-books/70-norwegens-arktischer-norden-1-aerial-arctic-9783937903262.html"] ← Back
Lofoten, Jan Mayen and Spitsbergen from the air - Photobook: Norway's arctic islands. The text in this book is German, but there is very little text, so I am sure that you will enjoy it regardless which languages you read (or not).
The companion book for the Svalbardhytter poster. The poster visualises the diversity of Spitsbergen‘s huts and their stories in a range of Arctic landscapes. The book tells the stories of the huts in three languages.
Comprehensive guidebook about Spitsbergen. Background (wildlife, plants, geology, history etc.), practical information including travelling seasons, how to travel, description of settlements, routes and regions.
Join an exciting journey with dog, skis and tent through the wintery wastes of East Greenland! We were five guys and a dog when we started in Ittoqqortoormiit, the northernmost one of two settlements on Greenland’s east coast.
12 postcards which come in a beautifully designed tray. Beautiful images from South Georgia across Antarctica from the Antarctic Peninsula to the Ross Sea and up to Macquarie Island and Campbell Island.