Dear Council of State, Parliament and City of Helsinki
In the framework decisions of the Council of State (March 2014) it is proposed that the State will give up Helsinki-Malmi Airport “in order to improve the prerequisites of housing production in Helsinki region“.
City of Helsinki, however, according to its own information, has enough building land to last until the 2030’s even in its fast growth scenario. In addition to this, the new metropolitan government will make a huge land reserve available to city planning in the near future. http://bit.ly/land-reserve
In the future, Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport will not be able to serve unscheduled traffic flexibly. Even today, a time slot for using its runways must be applied for hours in advance. Malmi is the only international airport within 150 km that serves traffic on a free schedule. http://bit.ly/access-by-air
The strong growth of air traffic in the coming decades and the sufficiency of airport capacity is a strategic concern for the EU. Air traffic in the EU will grow to 2-3 times its present volume by 2050. The fastest-growing segment of business aviation is the light aircraft segment, for which Malmi is ideally suited. http://bit.ly/traffic-growth
The loss of Malmi Airport would weaken the capital’s international accessibility and traffic connections, which are an essential competitive asset to industry and commerce.
The economic prerequisites of Malmi’s aviation schools would be lost in a trasfer to provincial airports, and the 4000-8000 annual hobby aviation operations cannot fit on the two small uncontrolled airfields in Uusimaa province in an environmentally and safety-wise acceptable way. http://bit.ly/forced-relocations
The airport as a whole is also a built cultural environment of national significance. It has strong merits to become a UNESCO World Heritage site, which would have a significant positive impact on the tourism branch of the region. http://bit.ly/cultural-treasure
Keeping Malmi Airport in aviation use has a 2/3 support among the people of Helsinki and Uusimaa province. http://bit.ly/gallup-2014
Our Petition to Save Malmi Airport has already more than 65.000 signatures. http://malmiairport.fi/petition
We hope that when structural policy decisions are made, the overall interests of Finnish society are considered carefully and taking all viewpoints into account over a timeline of several decades.
Respectfully
Friends of Malmi Airport Society
