Tampere–Pirkkala Airport

Tampere–Pirkkala Airport (; , ), or simply Tampere Airport, is located in Pirkkala, Finland, south-west of Tampere city centre. The airport is the sixth-busiest airport in Finland, as measured by the total number of passengers (168,328 in 2022), and the third-busiest as measured by the number of international passengers (159,801 in 2022).

History Foundation and early years Tampere Airport was founded in 1936 in Härmälä neighbourhood, located from the centre of Tampere. At that time the airport was connected to Helsinki, Vaasa, Oulu and Kemi by Aero O/Y (now Finnair). 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.

Development since 2010 In 2011, Ryanair had 13 destinations from Tampere–Pirkkala. Wizz Air flew to Gdańsk during summers 2010 and 2011. airBaltic 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. in late 2023, Ryanair terminated the route to London-Stansted, ending 20 years of service.

On 14 December 2021, AirBaltic announced that its first secondary hub outside of the Baltic countries would be established in Tampere Airport in May 2022. In March 2023, Finnair announced it would end flights between Tampere and Helsinki Airport and replace them with bus service due to low demand and the short distance.aerotelegraph.com - "Short routes: Finnair replaces planes with busses" (German) 5 April 2023

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

Military usage The airport is also home to the Satakunta Air Command base of the Finnish Air Force. F-18 Hornets were stationed at Tampere-Pirkkala airport until the middle of 2014 when the 21st Fighter Squadron was dissolved.

Statistics

+ Annual passenger statistics for Tampere–Pirkkala Airport Year Domestic passengers Change International passengers Change Total passengers Change 1998 113,170 81,549 194,719 1999 119,283 5.4 103,746 27.2 223,029 14.5 2000 140,817 18.1 115,561 11.4 256,378 15.0 2001 135,175 −4.0 130,875 13.3 266,050 3.8 2002 109,747 −18.8 126,525 −3.3 236,272 −11.2 2003 105,543 −3.8 198,482 56.9 304,025 28.7 2004 128,250 21.5 367,642 85.2 495,892 63.1 2005 114,669 −10.6 482,433 31.2 597,102 20.4 2006 119,432 4.2 512,578 6.2 632,010 5.8 2007 113,713 −4.8 573,998 12.0 687,711 8.8 2008 107,954 −5.1 601,402 4.8 709,356 3.1 2009 85,372 −20.9 542,733 −9.8 628,105 −11.5 2010 91,312 7.0 526,085 −3.1 617,397 −1.7 2011 96,625 5.8 561,005 6.6 657,630 6.5 2012 85,738 −11.3 485,001 −13.5 570,739 −13.2 2013 88,268 3.0 378,403 −22.0 466,671 −18.2 2014 93,313 5.7 319,296 −15.6 412,609 −11.6 2015 89,938 −3.6 267,144 −16.3 357,082 −13.5 2016 86,278 −4.1 122,652 −54.1 208,930 −41.5 2017 85,844 −0.5 144,180 17.6 230,024 10.1 2018 81,705 −4.8 146,391 1.5 228,096 −0.8 2019 87,006 6.5 135,384 −7.5 222,390 −2.5 2020 16,736 −80.8 19,214 −85.8 35,950 −83.8 2021 412 −97.5 7,979 −58.5 8,391 −76.7 2022 8,527 1,969.7 159,801 1,902.8 168,328 1,906.1 2023 661 −76.7 213,038 33.3 213,699 27.0 2024 5,484 729.7 156,263 -26.7 161,747 -24.3 2025 3,500 -36.2 137,164 -12.2 140,664 -13.0

Ground transportation The airport is connected to the city centre of Tampere (25 minutes) by bus route 103, which runs a few times a day just after planes land. Bus route 34 goes to central Pirkkala once an hour during rush hours. One can transfer to a few local buses that go to other parts of Pirkkala or Nokia.

There are long-distance connections to Helsinki and other cities via the Tampere Bus Station operated by Matkahuolto.

Means of transport Operator Route Destinations Bus Tampere Regional Transport Authority 34 Pirkkala Bus Tampere Regional Transport Authority 103 Tampere railway stationTampere bus station

Tampere–Pirkkala Airport

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