Tampere–Pirkkala Airport (; fi, Tampere-Pirkkalan lentoasema, sv, Tammerfors-Birkala flygplats), or simply Tampere Airport, is located in

Pirkkala Pirkkala (; sv, Birkala) is a municipality of Finland. It is located some south-west from Tampere in the Pirkanmaa region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is , which makes ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, south-west of

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

city centre. The airport is the 14th-busiest

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

in Finland, as measured by the total number of passengers (8,391 in 2021), and the eighth-busiest as measured by the number of international passengers (7,979 in 2021). The airport is also home to the Satakunta Air Command base of the

Finnish Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , equipment = 159 , equipment_label ...

F-18 Hornet The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather, twin-engine, supersonic, carrier-capable, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft (hence the F/A designation). Designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part ...

s were stationed at Tampere-Pirkkala airport until the middle of 2014 when the 21st flight of the Satakunta Air command was dissolved.

History

Tampere Airport was founded in 1936 in Härmälä neighbourhood, located from the centre of Tampere. At that time the airport was connected to

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

Vaasa Vaasa (; sv, Vasa, , Sweden ), in the years 1855–1917 as Nikolainkaupunki ( sv, Nikolajstad; literally meaning "city of Nicholas),

, Oulu and Kemi by Aero O/Y (now

Finnair Finnair ( fi, Finnair Oyj, sv, Finnair Abp) is the flag carrier and largest airline of Finland, with its headquarters in Vantaa on the grounds of Helsinki Airport, its hub. Finnair and its subsidiaries dominate both domestic and international ...

). The first terminal building was built in 1941. Karhumäki Airways began to fly to Stockholm in the 1950s. The runway was paved in 1958. Between 1936 and 1979 Härmälä airport served 1.5 million passengers. In 1979, Härmälä airport was closed and the new Tampere–Pirkkala Airport was opened. The current terminal 1 building was completed in 1996. Ryanair started flights to Tampere–Pirkkala in April 2003. Its first destinations were Stockholm-Skavsta, London-Stansted, Frankfurt-Hahn and Riga. This made the airport one of Finland's fastest-growing airports and increased its annual passenger numbers from 256,380 to 709,356 between 2000 and 2008. In 2011, Ryanair had 13 destinations from Tampere–Pirkkala.

Wizz Air Wizz Air, legally incorporated as Wizz Air Hungary Ltd. ( hu, Wizz Air Hungary Légiközlekedési Zrt.) is a Hungarian ultra-low-cost carrier with its head office in Budapest, Hungary. The airline serves many cities across Europe, as well as s ...

flew to Gdańsk during summers 2010 and 2011.

airBaltic airBaltic, legally incorporated as AS Air Baltic Corporation, is the flag carrier of Latvia, with its head office on the grounds of Riga International Airport in Mārupe municipality near Riga. Its main hub is Riga, and it operates bases ...

resumed flights to Riga in March 2017. The low-cost airline terminal 2 was renovated in 2014–2015. However, in April 2015, Ryanair announced that it would cancel all the routes from Tampere for the winter season 2015–16 due to a plane shortage. Then, only routes to Bremen and Budapest resumed in spring 2016. As of 2022, Ryanair only offers flight to London-Stansted. On 14 December 2021, AirBaltic announced that its first secondary hub outside of the Baltic countries will be founded in Tampere Airport in May 2022.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Tampere–Pirkkala Airport:

Statistics

Tampere Pirkkala Airport Departures Finland

Passengers

Freight and mail

Ground transportation

The airport is connected to the city centre of

(25 minutes) by bus route 103, which runs a few times a day just after planes land. The bus fare for a single ticket to Tampere is €5.50 (zones A+B+C). One can change to any other bus, tram or commuter train going anywhere within Tampere and parts of neighbouring municipalities within 90 minutes from the purchase of the ticket. Bus route 39A goes to central Pirkkala, where one can transfer to a number of buses that go to Tampere or

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...

. There are long-distance connections to Helsinki and other cities via the Tampere Bus Station. The timetables and fares can be found at the Matkahuolto web site. A taxi service is also available in front of Terminal 1.

References

External links

Finavia – Tampere–Pirkkala Airport
(official site)

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tampere-Pirkkala Airport Airports in Finland

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

Buildings and structures in Pirkanmaa Finnish Air Force bases International airports in Finland