Enontekiö Airport, Located in the North-Western “arm” of Finland, is taking part in a project that seeks to determine whether electric aircraft could be a means to revive lightly trafficked short-haul routes, reports YLE.
The flights are scheduled to commence next autumn on a route from Rovaniemi via Enontekiö to Tromsø, Norway. They will initially be operated with aircraft powered by renewable jet fuel but later with electric aircraft.
Enontekiö is to later also offer connections to Ivalo, Kuusamo, and Oulu in Finland, Kiruna in Sweden, and Alta in Norway.
Flights within Lapland have not been available since the 1990s, with the exception of the triangle flights between Helsinki, Ivalo, and Kittilä. Electric aviation, however, promises to enable the profitable operation of short-haul flights with low passenger volumes – including year-round flights out of Enontekiö, a municipality with roughly 1,800 residents, believes Marko Halla, CEO of Enontekiö Airport.