lappeenranta airport 2015

LAPPEENRANTAA I R PORT

LAPPEENRANTA –

an ideal Destination

LAPPEENRANTA - GATEWAY TO THE FINNISH LAKE DISTRICT AND ST PETERSBURG, BRINGING 8 MILLION PEOPLE WITHIN REACH


St. Petesburg

Helsinki

Lappeenranta

200 km / 2h

Our airport has a runway length of 2,500 metres, a catchment area of eight million people that spans two countries, and a location near one of the world’s most beautiful cities of culture. Lappeenranta provides a fabulous route opportunity.

This city is extremely popular with Russians and an ideal gateway to St Petersburg, one of the world’s most treasured cultural and historical cities. St Petersburg is a unique market mix of consumers who desperately yearn for a choice of low-fare services and travel options. North-west Russia is a vibrant market that needs greater variety in its airline routes, both inbound and outbound, in a strong economic area. About 1.6 million Russian tourists visit Lappeenranta every year, and the Finnish consulate in St Petersburg issued a million Schengen visas in 2014 alone.

At the same time, Lappeenranta is a first-choice destination for many European holiday makers who want fast access to Finland’s most enticing tourism region, where they can experience cruises on the glorious Lake Saimaa and take boat trips down the beautiful Saimaa canal to Russia.

Lappeenranta is a regional centre in south-east Finland. This city of 72,000 inhabitants is at the centre of the province of South Karelia, which has 135,000 citizens. Lappeenranta is the EU city nearest St Petersburg, Russia. The city is situated between two bustling metropoles, only 220 km from both St Petersburg and Helsinki.

LAPPEENRANTA– AN IDEAL DESTINATION

Lying at the heart of an enticing tourism

and business region, Lappeenranta has all the right pull factors for low-cost carriers.


WHY LAPPEENRANTA?• The open skies of the EU

• A competitive and efficient airport

• Finland’s largest airport catchment area, with 8 million people

• Excellent reachability

• A popular tourism destination

• The closest European city neighbouring St Petersburg

• A cost-efficient operation environment

• Strong local support

ONLY 220 KM FROM BOTH ST PETERSBURG AND THE HELSINKI METROPOLITAN AREA

Lappeenranta has excellent road and rail connections from everywhere in Finland and from St Petersburg. Main highways VT 6 and VT 13 run through this regional hub, bringing

rapid connections from nearby cities. Allegro trains carry Russian travellers from the centre of St Petersburg to Lappeenranta in just 1½ hours.

Lappeenranta’s international airport, with a 95-year history and an ideal location, is becoming one of the most significant Finnish airports. For several years now, it has shown solid development in passenger volumes, and 2011 was a record-breaking year for passenger numbers. Nowadays all Lappeenranta routes enjoy very good load factors.

EIGHT MILLION PEOPLE WITHIN REACHThe aviation facilities at Lappeenranta Airport are complete with full-service operations that are able to handle new airline services at short notice. The practical terminal building easily accommodates a full Boeing 737’s passengers. There is also excellent infrastructure, including plenty of car parking capacity and a ground-

transport network that efficiently feeds the airport from all directions.

Lappeenranta Airport is fortunate to have abundant space for building new facilities. The airport benefits also from a very convenient location close to the city centre.

With 90,000 passengers in 2014, there is clear demand for new routes and new airlines. Potential for reaching eight million people enables many development steps for the near future. Lappeenranta is referred to as ‘St Petersburg West Airport’, providing Russians with a more hassle-free and cost-effective travel option, and local citizens and companies welcome the easier access abroad. Lappeenranta has significant advantages over Pulkovo and other Russian airports and provides the high security levels that travellers expect at European airports.

STOCKHOLM

LAPPEENRANTA

REYKJAVIK

COPENHAGEN

HAMBURG

WROCLAW

PRAGUE

BUDAPEST

THESSALONIKI

LONDON LUTEN

MALAGA

BRUSSELS

DUSSELDORF

AMSTERDAM

POSSIBLE ROUTES / NEW ROUTE OPPORTUNITIES


STOCKHOLM

LAPPEENRANTA

REYKJAVIK

COPENHAGEN

HAMBURG

WROCLAW

PRAGUE

BUDAPEST

THESSALONIKI

LONDON LUTEN

MALAGA

BRUSSELS

DUSSELDORF

AMSTERDAM


A GROWING TOURISM CENTRELappeenranta is on the southern shore of Europe’s fourth largest lake – south-east Finland’s

Lake Saimaa – and near the border between the EU and Russia. Its unique location makes Lappeenranta Finland’s second most popular destination as measured by the number of foreign visitors.

More than 1.5 million Russian tourists visited the region in 2014.

Tourism has developed strongly in recent years – the gem of Lappeenranta has been discovered also to the west of the border, by Finnish and European tourists seeking a haven in undisturbed nature, where they can enjoy unimaginable silence beside clean waters.

Lappeenranta’s bustling harbour is the starting point for highly popular boat cruises around the archipelago of Lake Saimaa, Finland’s largest lake. Blending crystal-clear waters, around 15,000 km of shoreline, and a maze of 14,000 islands blanketed by pristine forest, summertime Saimaa makes an idyllic and luxury cruise destination.

Thanks to large investments in the tourism industry and the feedback received so far, there is every reason to believe that the strong growth will continue; additional hotel capacity will enable even more rapid growth of the travel and tourism industry here. Saimaa Gardens located in Lappeenranta is the Nordic region’s largest holiday resort. When the project is complete, the resort will offer 8,000 beds in total, holiday villas, many activities, a marina, and a golf course.

Lappeenranta, with its historical fortress, the largest sandcastle in the Nordic region, clean forests, and nature with breathtaking

Lake Saimaa scenery, provides excellent possibilities for many kinds of outdoor activities. And tourists can combine a nature holiday with enjoying the city’s culture. Given the popularity of major city-break destinations such as Paris, Rome, Vienna, and Prague, the potential uptake of a route to Lappeenranta, with ground transportation to St Petersburg, cannot be overestimated.

Lappeenranta also has excellent winter offerings, including: snowmobile safaris, dogsledding with huskies, snowshoe hiking, cross-country skiing, and ice-fishing on Lake Saimaa.

SERVICES: • Marketing co-operation, with a jointly designed campaign for Finnish and Russian markets, including:

» visibility in Lappeenranta’s newsletters and other publications, along with Web sites, including Facebook » local press events and joint PR

activities in St Petersburg, joint PR activities targeting the Russian market, and more


SERVICES OFFERED BY THE CITY OF LAPPEENRANTA

AND THE REGION

Wirma Lappeenranta Ltd is a company owned by the City of Lappeenranta and the surrounding municipalities. The company offers an extensive range of business services,

among them sophisticated ‘invest in Lappeenranta’ services: concrete help tailor-made for those planning, starting, and operating a business in Lappeenranta. There is a wide range

of support mechanisms to guarantee an efficient start and high booking figures.

» outdoor visibility in Lappeenranta » access to a large database of Russian

media interested in Lappeenranta » fam trips to the Lappeenranta area,

jointly arranged by media and tour operators » support in creating a network of

local partners, including business matchmaking with tourism-industry key players and a host of Finnish and Russian travel agencies

• Assistance in creating an international network of partnership with Russian travel agencies• Help in finding the support organisations needed for successful operations – local catering services, a call centre, etc.• Extensive market-research reports on Russian travellers• Assistance in investigating concepts for generating traffic• GoSaimaa visibility

Welcome to Lappeenranta, at the heart of the spectacular Finnish Lake District and Finland’s natural gateway to St Petersburg!

LAPPEENRANTA AIRPORT – A TRULY OUTSTANDING BASE OF OPERATIONS

• Lappeenranta is by far the most important commercial centre in south-east Finland.

• Russian tourists’ annual spending in Finland comes to approximately €680 million, of which Lappeenranta’s share is €230 million. Helsinki and Lappeenranta take the lion’s share of tax-free sales.

• More than 1.5 million Russian tourists visited the region in 2014. Lappeenranta is south-east Finland’s largest city and the only growth centre in the area.

• This is an international university city with 13,000 students.

• Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT), Saimaa University of Applied Sciences, and multinational companies create ongoing international exchange of travellers.

• GoSaimaa is a respected local tourism marketing organisation owned by the cities of Lappeenranta and Imatra alongside private businesses, marketing the region nationally and internationally with a 3.3-million-euro annual budget.

PLEASE CONTACT US FOR DISCUSSION AND FURTHER DETAILS:Wirma Lappeenranta Ltd.Laserkatu 6FI-53850 Lappeenranta+358 5 616 3400+358 40 358 5554 www.wirma.fi


lappeenranta airport 2015

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