The Stuck at the Airport team is a big fan of Helsinki, Finland. And not just for the licorice.
We love the airport too.
And we’re delighted to learn that passengers traveling through Helsinki Airport (HEL) can now enjoy snippets of opera and ballet from the Opera House in Helsinki.
Audio and video selections from performances are projected on a giant wall at the airport train station.
The first set of snippets includes highlights from the ballets Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty and the operas Tosca, Turandot and Don Giovanni. The run time is about 20 minutes and the program selections will be refreshed regularly.
We’re putting this in the running for Airport Amenity of the Week.
Indianapolis Int’l Airport displays a replica of a President’s house
Here’s another fun installation at an airport.
(Courtesy IND Airport)
The home of Benjamin Harris, the 23rd President of the United States, is a popular tourist destination near downtown Indianapolis.
And now an intricate replica of Harrison’s house created by miniaturist Jimmy Landers is on display in the pre-security Civic Plaza at Indianapolis International Airport (IND).
The replica is nearly six feet long, three feet wide and four feet tall. It includes more than 40 windows, eight porch columns, four chimneys and real slate roofs.
The original home was built with 380,552 bricks. The replica has 48,000.
The original structure cost $29,000 (over $800,000 in 2024 dollars). The cost of building the replica was about about half as much: $15,000.
Beyond, or perhaps we should say despite, its great airport code – HEL- Helsinki Airport, operated by Finavia, offers travelers some charming and thoughtful amenities in its new main terminal.
Here are some snaps from a tour on our way home from a week exploring Finland after joining Finnair on the first flight from Seattle to Helsinki.
Here are 5 of the amenities we loved.
Welcome to Helsinki
Passengers entering the arrivals hall – and those waiting for their friends or loved ones to arrive – are greeted with a calming indoor garden with live plants.
Thoughtful, automatic sanitizing
Is that handrail clean? In most airports, we don’t know. But at Helsinki Airport you can grab on with confidence because the handrail is automatically sanitized all the time.
Art with a sense of place
‘Aukio’ (by Gate 40) is an oasis where passengers can wind down and experience Finnish nature.
The curved 360° LED screen is a projection, soundscape, and interactive wall offering a journey through Finland’s nature and its four seasons. The landscapes change every 10 minutes, the speakers play nature sounds, and an interactive screen lets visitors create art with snowflakes, the Northern Lights, or autumn leaves.
Souvenirs
Airport shops offer everything from Finnish clothing and accessories by Marimekko to licorice-flavored liquors, reindeer pate, and bear meat. (If that’s your thing…)
Christmas Cabin
Santa’s year-round home is in Finland, Finns and others will tell you. So it makes sense that Helsinki Airport has a Christmas Cabin right there in the terminal.
Inside is a faux sauna, a storybook, Scandinavian-style furniture and decorations, and a Book of Names so that Santa knows who has been good or bad.
And, yes, we love that we can tell people we can now fly directly from Seattle to HEL(L).
(Courtesy Port of Seattle)
Flights to SEA to HEL now operate three times a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, using an Airbus A330.
Here are a few more snaps from the gate celebration on June 1, some of the inflight amenities, and a few places we visited early in our Helsinki visit.
Thanks to Finnair for taking us along.
Cookies to celebrate the Inaugural Finnair Flight from Seattle to Helsinki
Souvenirs from the inaugural flight include cookies and luggage tags. For some passengers we met in the gate area before the flight, these were the only clues that they had booked seats on new service from SEA.
Combined with the champagne or blueberry juice welcome drink and the Marimekko amenity kit for business class passengers, this was a very festive welcome.
SEA airport sent off this inaugural flight with two congratulatory cakes for the crew, which they generously shared with passengers.
In Helsinki
We’ll have more time to explore the airport on our way home but we are encouraged to see bright spaces and artwork greeting passengers on arrival at the recently-upgraded terminal.
Licorice in Finland
Salted licorice (salmiakki) is a popular treat in many Nordic countries and a ‘you love it or you hate it’ treat for visitors from other countries. The StuckatTheAirport.com team loves it. And we were pleased to find a candy store not far from our hotel filled with licorice varieties we’d never seen or tasted before.
Helsinki Attractions
We’ll share more photos over the next few days, but with charming guides from Visit Helsinki, a group of Seattle-area journalists has been roving around the town.
Rock Church
Temppeliaukio Church is, understandably, one of Helsinki’s major tourist destinations because this Lutheran Church was carved out of solid rock, lined with copper, and covered with a UFO-like dome.
Helsinki’s central library – Oodi
Photo by Tuomas Uusheimo, Courtesy Helsinki Partner
Helsinki’s Central Library – Oodi – has books, of course. But this sprawling, welcoming space also serves as a community center and resource palace with everything from an outdoor terrace and cafes, to work and meeting spaces, recording studios with loaner instruments, play areas for kids, 3-D printing stations, sewing machines, and seemingly anything you might want to use or try out.
We love the spiral staircase, a work of art decorated with hundreds of words describing the wide variety of users that the public suggested the library should be dedicated to.
HELSINKI ART MUSEUM – HAM
The Helsinki Art Museum – HAM – is hard to miss with this giant seagull head outside. We’ve yet to make our way inside the building. But because about half of the 9,000 works of art in HAM’s collection are located in public spaces, we’re able to enjoy the museum’s offerings as we walk around town.
We’ll be back with more sites and spottings from Helsinki tomorrow.
In Finland, though, anyone can have Helsinkin Airport named for them. At least for a few moments.
Finavia Corporation, which manages Finland’s airport network has created a way for anyone to have their name put on the front of the Helsinki Airport terminal buildl long enough to snap a selfie or two.
Your entry will be reviewed to make sure it’s not off-color or inappropriate. And then, depending on how many requests are in ahead of you, your name will appear over the Helsinki Airport sign on the front of the terminal.
We tested it out and filled out the form early morning Finland time from Seattle. Then we watched on the website as our name popped up on the airport sign within seconds.
Unfortunately, of course, we couldn’t get a selfie with our sign because were weren’t standing out in front of the airport in person. But we’re determined to get there so we can get that snap.
In the meatime, we’re declaring this Airport Amenity of the Week. Agree?
Holidays at Airports and in the Air
We’re gathering up news of holiday events and amenities being rolled out by airports and airlines.
Here are a few to round out the week.
We're in the giving spirit this holiday season! 🎁 With #NationalSockDay this weekend, our elves have secretly hidden pairs of 𝘿𝙁𝙒 𝙍𝙪𝙣𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙎𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙨 around the terminals. 🧦
If you find one of our special gifts, feel free to take it along on your journey! ✈️ pic.twitter.com/GMLAXdD261
🎵 Don we now our fly apparel // FLY-LA-LA-LA-LA LA-LA-LA-LA 🎵 We’re continuing one of our coziest traditions by unveiling our 2021 limited-edition holiday sweater! Keep an eye out on our social channels to see when you might get your hands on one. 👀 pic.twitter.com/hLVnFveLmq
Join the fun and take some pictures at our new selfie station in front of the holiday tree as you enter or exit the airside terminal. pic.twitter.com/zfn3754mSh
— Pittsburgh International Airport (@PITairport) December 2, 2021
Organizations representing airports and airlines, including the International Air Transport Association (IATA), are calling for rapid COVID-19 testing for passengers at airports as an alternative to quarantine measures or bans on international travel.
“The key to restoring the freedom of mobility across borders is systematic COVID-19 testing of all travelers before departure, said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO. “This will give governments the confidence to open their borders without complicated risk models that see constant changes in the rules imposed on travel,” he adds.
Most groups are calling for some sort of government agency or coordination for this tests. But in the meantime, airports and airlines are coming up with testing programs on their own.
United Airlines’ offering COVID-19 tests for Hawaii-bound passengers. Brace for the fee.
Starting October 15, customers traveling on United Airlines flights from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Hawaii will be able to take either a rapid COVID-19 test at the airport or a self-administered mail-in test at home.
This pilot program is timely and welcome because both residents and visitors arriving from out-of-state to Hawaii are still subject to a mandatory 14-day quarantine. But starting October 15, arriving travelers will be exempt from the quarantine if they have written confirmation of a negative test result secured within 72 hours from their final leg of their departure.
How will the tests work and what will they cost?
The test at SFO airport will be a rapid Abbott ID NOW COVID-19 testadministered by GoHealth Urgent Care and partner Dignity Health. Passengers can make an appointment at the testing site in the international terminal on the day of their flight. Testing site hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
The cost is $250. Certainly not cheap. But results should be available in about 15 minutes.
The mail-in test option is less expensive – $80, plus shipping. Still not cheap. This test is offered by a company named Color. They recommend customers order the test kit at least 10 days before their trip so they can send in a sample at least 72 hours before they fly. Results are delivered via email or text.
COVID-19 Testing by Dog
Meanwhile, Finland’s Helsinki Airport now has a team of specially-trained dogs on duty whose job it is to sniff out passengers who may be infected with COVID-19.
Tests conducted by University of Helsinki find that dogs can smell the COVID-19 virus with almost 100% certainty, according to a statement from the airport. The trained dogs can also identify the virus days before the symptoms have even started and from a much smaller sample than tests used by other methods.
“The difference is massive, as a dog only needs 10-100 molecules to identify the virus, whereas test equipment requires 18,000,000.”
Covid-19 dogs started their work today at the Helsinki Airport at arrival hall 2B. Dogs have been trained to detect the coronavirus from the test wipes given by the testperson. Service is voluntary and primarily targeted for passengers arriving from abroad. pic.twitter.com/ieMLm0KuZY
Finland is celebrating 100 years of independence this year and Helsinki airport is part of the party.
In January, the airport opened the Arctic World of Santa Claus space, where visitors can see see and experience Finland in fifteen minutes. In April, a photo exhibition highlighting Finish nature photography was opened.
Now the airport transfer buses are getting make-overs to celebrate Finnish themes.
They’ve started with a sauna-themed bus, a bus dedicated to Finnish national composer Jean Sibelius and one dedicated to Formula 1 car racing, which is evidently also dear to the Finns.
At least two more themed buses are promised.
We’re declaring this the Airport Amenity of the Week.
A while back, Helsinki Airport and Finnair turned an airport runway into a skatepark.
That worked out so well, they’re doing it again:
On May 24, Finnair and Helsinki Airport (HEL) will host Runway 2 – a fashion show featuring work by top designers from around the world presented on an airport runway.
The event is a Match Made in HEL and will feature the work of yet-to-be announced fashion designers from China, Korea, Japan, the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
Sounds like great fun. Especially if the planes landing and taking off that day use the other runway…
Sleep pods have arrived (again) at Helsinki Airport in Finland.
Back in 2013, the airport ran a test program that included several free rest and relax options.
Travelers favored sleep pods over larger rest areas and that has led to the installation of 19 GoSleep pods at the airport.
Each pod consists of an ergonomic seat that can be turned into a bed. Pillows and blankets are available, carry-on luggage can be stored under the seat and there’s a pull-up cover designed to block out light and noise.
As a bonus – there’s a power plug in each sleep pod for charging phones and laptops.
Sound cozy?
The cost of checking into the sleep pod seems pretty reasonable: 9 Euro per hour – at current exchange rates, about US $10.
Admit it: even if you’re not a skateboarder, you’ve looked down those long airport corridors and thought about how cool it would be to cover those distances on a skateboard.
Now Finland’s Helsinki Airport is going to give a select few skateboarders that chance. And more.
As part of a promotion highlighting the airport as a transfer point, on October 12 and 13 Finavia and Finnair are hosting the Match made in HEL skateboarding invitational – which will turn the airport over Finnish professional skateboarder Arto Saari and skateboarders from Asia and Europe.
Want to join them? Skateboarders can apply by sharing their skate videos at matchmadeinHEL.com and four will be chosen.
September is National Yoga Month, which makes it great timing for the Chicago Department of Aviation to open the promised yoga room at Midway International Airport.
Located on Concourse C, Midway’s new yoga room has a sustainable bamboo wood floor, floor to ceiling mirrors on one wall, exercise mats and an area to store personal articles and garments. There are frosted windows on one side of the room to let in natural light and to provide a bit of privacy. There’s also a wall-mounted video monitor showing yoga exercise techniques and nature scenes, all with an audio plays soothing sounds.
Next door to Midway’s yoga room there’s a new room set aside for mothers who’d like some privacy while nursing a baby.
But, since it is National Yoga Month, let’s get back to yoga.
Here’s a list of other airports that offer yoga rooms for travelers:
Chicago O’Hare International Airport -opened in December 2013. You’ll find it on the Mezzanine Level of Terminal 3 Rotunda, near the airport’s urban garden.
San Francisco International Airport has two yoga rooms.
SFO’s Yoga Room in Terminal 2 (which was the world’s first yoga room in an airport) is closed until November 4, 2014 to accommodate a construction project. The airport’s second yoga room, located in Terminal 3, Boarding Area E, remains open.
At all of these airport yoga studios, soothing ambiance – and mats – are provided.
Meanwhile, at Helsinki Airport in Finland, Finavia’s TravelLab initiative has been testing out a variety of yoga offerings, including a Yoga Gate, yoga lessons and the sale of yoga-related items, including mats and clothes.
The summertime project also surveyed passengers about the whether or not they’d be interested in paying for taking a yoga lesson at the airport. Would you?
