The terminal at Turku Airport, August 2015. Author: Jarteq.
Stats[]
| Category. | Statistic. |
|---|---|
| Location. | Finland. |
| Opened in. | Early Cold War (?). |
| Closed in. | Part of it became apart of the existing civil (Finavia) airport and the rest stayed in use after the Cold War. |
| Operated by. | Finnish Air force. |
| Owned by. | Finnish MoD. |
| Outside link. | http://www.kondruss.biz/mad/finland/air-bases.html#563188, https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Turku_Airport, https://www.finavia.fi/en/turku/, https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0LEV1weG9RYm5UAdnhXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzMXBobHNmBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDVUkwMkM0XzEEc2VjA3Nj?p=Turku+Airfield&fr=dss_yset_chr, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Turku-Airport/111184208932728?rf=431945176950552, https://www.wikiwand.com/en/List_of_airports_in_Finland, and https://www.finavia.fi/en/turku/timetables/departing-flights/. |
Overview[]
Turku Airport (IATA: TKU, ICAO: EFTU), is located in Turku, Finland, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) north of Turku, in Lentokenttä (Finnish for airfield; Swedish: Flygfältet) district in the Maaria-Paattinen ward of Turku. It serves approximately 320,000 passengers per year, being the fourth busiest airport in Finland by the number of passengers (in 2012) and second busiest airport by the amount of cargo tonnes (in 2012). Turku Airport is exclusively operated by the state-owned company Finavia. Among normal operation the airport offers differentiated service specifically designed for low-cost airlines since 2008. Tuku Airfield shares the main runway with nearby Tuku airport.
Turku Airport and its surroundings are marketed as LogiCity the hope to attract logistic companies and manufacturers near the airport.
History[]
Early years[]
Turku Airport was Finland's first civilian airport when it was built in Artukainen in 1935, but already in the 1920s there was a sea-plane ("flying boat") water-airport on Ruissalo Island. Artukainen served as a main airport of Turku until the new airport was built in the municipality of Rusko in 1955.
Cold War[]
A small air force base was built adjacent to it in the early Cold War.
The location become part of Turku in 1957. New terminal building was opened in 1978. Runway was upgraded to 2500 m in 1980. Air cargo terminal was opened in 1991 as well as air cargo plate. Terminal 1 was renovated and enlarged in 1999. In the 1990s, Lufthansa CityLine operated flights to Hamburg and ELK Airways to Tallinn.
Present day[]
Second cargo terminal was opened in 2003 and second passenger terminal for low-cost airlines in 2008. Wizz Air launched flights to Turku in April 2008 and AirBaltic in July 2009. Wingo xprs operated flights to Stockholm-Bromma in spring 2009 and Jet Air to Gdańsk in 2009–2010.
Turku Airport was closed partially in July 2014 for the renovations of the runway and taxiways. Terminal 1 and the passenger apron were also renovated. Finavia budgeted 14 million euros for the renovations and improvements. However, Scandinavian Airlines flights to Copenhagen, one of the most important destinations operated since 2006, were discontinued after the renovations. This had immediate impact in passenger volumes.
Terminal 2 was closed and its passenger services migrated to the main terminal due to oil leakage clean up of a spare power unit in autumn 2014. In June 2015 Finavia announced that the low-cost terminal will be completely demolished and low-cost concept will be continued in the first floor of main terminal in new premises.
Air force usage[]
Tuku Airfield shares the main runway with nearby Tuku airport. There are some buildings and taxiways.