You can read the editorial in the Mediaplanet Business Travel supplement published in Kauppalehti on 10.5. here.
News
Topi Simola appointed VR's Passenger Transport Director
Topi Simola, M.Sc. (Econ.), has been appointed VR Group's Director of Passenger Transport and member of the Group Management Team. He will take up his new position at the beginning of August 2019. Mr Simola has been Managing Director of Cabonline Finland Oy since 2017. Prior to that, he worked for five years as VR Group's Director of Short Sea Shipping and Development Director.
FBTA congratulates!
You can read the nomination notice here.
Eckerö Line acquires second vessel for Helsinki-Tallinn route - Finnish-flagged vessel to carry cargo already in June
Press release 6.5.2019
Finnish shipping company Eckerö Line has signed a letter of intent for a new cargo ship. The vessel will start sailing from Vuosaari in Helsinki to the A terminal in Tallinn in June. The Finnish-flagged vessel will carry not only cargo but also car passengers, for whom the new twice-daily service will offer a low-cost alternative for travelling between Finland and Estonia. The volume of freight and cars carried by Eckerö Line has been growing strongly in recent years, and the introduction of the new vessel will further increase the volume. The partial transfer of truck traffic to Vuosaari will also reduce heavy traffic in the Helsinki city centre area.
Managing Director of Eckerö Line Taru Keronen believes in the strong growth of the Helsinki-Tallinn route. ”We see great potential in the route, and we want to be part of its development. Our money figures have been growing well in recent years, and more and more passengers are taking their cars with them when they travel to Estonia. We are now bringing a completely new solution to the route, which will accelerate the shift of growing heavy traffic to Vuosaari and create a new alternative for freight and car travellers,” says Keronen.
Finnish-flagged vessel creates jobs in Finland and Estonia
The new vessel will be registered under the Finnish flag. Eckerö Line is the only Finnish flag operator on the Helsinki-Tallinn route, and its second vessel m/s Finlandia is also registered under the Finnish flag.
The vessel will be docked in May and is expected to enter service in June. The opening of the new route will create new jobs in the ports of Vuosaari and Tallinn and for the new vessel. ”The launch of the new vessel will create around 80 new jobs in Finland and Estonia,” says Taru Keronen.
Two kilometres of freight and over 350 customer seats
The vessel is owned by Eckerö Line's parent company Rederi Ab Eckerö, from whom it will be chartered. It was built in Spain in 2000 and last operated between Liverpool and Dublin with P&O Ferries. The vessel carries 366 passengers and has a small shop, comfortable passenger facilities, a café and seating saloon and cabins. The cargo lane is two kilometres long, slightly more than the passenger vessel m/s Finlandia already operated by Eckerö Line.
”We offer a fast and practical freight alternative to the congested Helsinki city centre. Our number of cargo departures will increase to ten per day when we add up the new vessel and the cargo carried by m/s Finlandia,” says Eckerö Line's Director of Freight. Markku Onniselkä.
The new vessel will operate two round trips a day with a journey time of three hours. The name of the vessel will be published after registration.
The new Marski by Scandic is an energetic and open-minded base for an honest, original and innovative Finland
Press release 26.4.2019
The completely renovated classic hotel Marski by Scandic will open as Finland's first Signature hotel in early June in its familiar location in the heart of Helsinki. Known as a legendary meeting place and the birthplace of new phenomena, Marski will continue to offer a stylish and inspiring space where travellers and locals alike can take a breather and enjoy interesting encounters from early morning until late at night.
Every major city has its legendary meeting places, where the pioneers of each era define the spirit of the times. Now renovated and reopened, Marski was an important meeting place in 1960s Helsinki: in Marski's bar, ideas were wild and thinking was free. The hotel was a place where everyone from politicians to world stars stayed overnight. The new Marski by Scandic opens in a modern, bold and open-minded Finland, where we are moving forward with tradition and stability.
”At Marski, urban culture, creativity and entrepreneurship meet Finnishness in all its aspects: honesty, respect and originality,” says Marski's hotel manager. Jouko Puranen. ”The result is a personal hotel experience that opens the doors to the real Helsinki and modern Finnishness as we experience it.”
The hotel's facilities offer top quality for travellers and locals alike looking for a quality night's stay or just a quick coffee on the way to work. The hotel offers 363 rooms, a wide range of meeting and event facilities, the Six Pieces restaurant, the Marski bar, the 7:01 café, a sauna with wellness facilities and a private parking garage.
Marski by Scandic's restaurant, café and bar offer new experiences with a traditional twist
The Marski bar is a classic, which, after renovation, became a new-age Finnish cocktail bar. Marski's Bar is a meeting place for quality ingredients, uncomplicated service and a relaxed atmosphere. Unprejudiced and inventive, the drinks list reflects responsible choices: raw materials are sourced locally and there is close cooperation with selected domestic producers.
The Kuusi Palaa restaurant also stands for clean Finnish ingredients and eating together.
”The restaurant's menu plays with food as creatively as the name of the restaurant in Finnish.
Six pieces, half a six or double six”, says the kitchen manager Sami Lyly. ”The kitchen prepares Finnish classics such as pasta salad and Mocha6Palat, as well as international classics like cold-smoked hissushi and spring rolls with Finnish flavours.”
In addition, the restaurant's show kitchen serves as a stage, brought so close that every
the customer gets to see and smell the atmosphere. From morning till night.
Café 7:01 takes its name from the story that Marshal Mannerheim had his morning coffee at exactly 7:01. Marski's new café 7:01 offers a quick coffee for the commuter, a snack for a city tour and the perfect coffee for a date. The café's namesake roast at 7:01 is from award-winning small roastery Kaffa Roastery in Red Mountain.
More information:
Jouko Puranen
Hotel Manager
Marski by Scandic
jouko.puranen@scandichotels.com
040 552 6309
Taxi traffic will change at Helsinki Airport on 15 April.
The Helsinki Airport taxi rank will change location in April and the drop-off of outbound passengers will move to the arrival level in May.
Read Finavia's press release on changing traffic arrangements here.
Helsinki Airport construction site takes a big bite out of the terminal: changes to airport taxi and bus services
Press release, Finavia 11.4.2019
The huge construction site in front of Terminal 2, almost the size of three Esplanade parks, will expand further as summer approaches. As a result, public transport at Helsinki Airport will be reorganised in April and May.
- The airport bus and taxi routes will change and the platforms will be moved to new locations by early June. These arrangements are being made as the expansion of Terminal 2 at Helsinki Airport is underway. Among other things, the airport will become a multi-modal travel centre, which will allow us to develop travel chains and plan smoother public transport connections," says Helsinki Airport's Director of Ground Transport. Jukka Isomäki From Finavia.
The three-phase bus and taxi arrangements will apply to traffic at Terminal 2. The rearrangements will last for a couple of years until the completion of Helsinki Airport's magnificent entrance with its new arrivals and departures halls in 2021. The new car park will be completed as early as next year.
The current changes have no impact on parking or train customers, nor on vehicle traffic in Terminal 1.
- Before arriving at the airport, it is a good idea to check the current news at Helsinki Airport on Finavia's website. It is also a good idea to arrive at the airport early. You should allow enough time to get to the terminal and board the plane, Isomäki reminds.
The taxi rank at Terminal 2 will change on 15.4.
The first change is the taxi rank. The current taxi rank, located in front of Terminal 2 on the arrivals level, will move to the ground floor of the terminal on 15 April. Passengers will go from the terminal to the new taxi rank via the escalator in Arrivals 2A and the lift to the P floor below.
The bus station and Invataks will move on 15.5.
A month later, on 15 May, the bus drop-off and pick-up facilities and the Invataxi waiting area in Terminal 2 will move. They will move from their current location about 100 metres towards the airport office buildings in front of the Scandic Hotel.
At the same time, hotel and parking buses will also move to the new bus station. The pick-up and drop-off points are located in front of the P5 car park on Lentäjänti Road.
The bus route in the airport area will change. Buses will now drive to the Terminal 2 bus station via Teletien-Lentäjäntien, and no longer from the Terminal Road as before.
By the end of May, an escalator link to the Terminal 2 check-in floor will be completed at the bus station.
Passenger drop-off at the main doors of Terminal 2 will end on 23 May.
The ramp leading to the main doors of Terminal 2 will be dismantled during the summer. As a result, there will no longer be any access to the check-in area, and taxis and private cars will drop passengers off one level lower, at the arrivals level. This change will take place on 23 May.
For passenger drop-off, a new convoy courtyard will be opened with a taxiway to the check-in area. The convoy yard will be fully completed in early June.
You can continue to stop in front of the terminal for a short while and disembark passengers, but parking is prohibited.
Escorts, and in particular those receiving passengers, can park in the P3 express car park. Parking costs one euro per 10 minutes, or six euros per hour. You can drive out of the hall for free if less than 10 minutes have elapsed since you entered.
Why are there changes in front of Terminal 2?
The route and platform changes in April and May are part of the Terminal 2 expansion project and are related to Finavia's billion investment programme at Helsinki Airport.
The current restructuring will be largely completed by the end of June, and construction will move to a more permanent phase. No major changes are expected for the rest of the year.
Finavia's investment programme in a nutshell
- Additional area for the Helsinki Airport terminal complex: + 45 % (103 000 m2), which is equivalent to the area of Linnanmäki amusement park. The total area of the terminal in the early 2020s will be over 250 000 m2.
- Additional new aircraft bridge positions: 8 for wide-body aircraft + 100 %, 4 for narrow-body aircraft + 15 %
- More capacity for baggage handling: +50 %
- More capacity for passport control: +50 %
- Renewed apron (aircraft parking and taxiways): 450 000 m2 or about 90 football pitches.
- Extension of car park P5 (3 000 parking spaces) and new car park (1 800 parking spaces)
- A new multimodal travel centre linking different modes of transport.
- Finavia's investment: approx. €1 billion
- Employment impact of the investment programme during construction 14 000 jobs
- Growth in air transport brings 5 000 new permanent jobs
Read more about the changes to Terminal 2
How the Helsinki Airport development programme is progressing
Download the Helsinki-Vantaa outdoor map here , showing parking areas, bus station and taxi stations