Kemi-Tornio Airport

Kemi-Tornio Airport
Characteristics
ICAO code	EFKE
IATA code	KEM
Coordinates	65 ° 46 '55 "  N , 24 ° 35' 57"  E Coordinates: 65 ° 46 '55 "  N , 24 ° 35' 57"  E
Height above MSL	19 m (62  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	6 km northeast of Kemi, 18 km southeast of Tornio
Basic data
opening	1939
operator	Finavia
Terminals	1
Passengers	63,579 (2019)
Air freight	28 t (2012)
Flight movements	1,579 (2012)
Start-and runway
18/36	2503 m × 48 m asphalt

The Kemi-Tornio Airport is an airport in Finnish Lapland .

The airline Finnair offers flights to Helsinki and Kokkola-Pietarsaari airports operated by My Jet Xpress Airlines . The flights to Kokkola-Pietarsaari are partly marketed by Juneyao Airlines .

location

It is located north of the city of Kemi on the northern edge of the Gulf of Bothnia near the Swedish border. The border town of Tornio is 18 km away. Most of the airport is located in the Kemier district of Lautiosaari, in the north the runway protrudes a few hundred meters into the neighboring municipality of Keminmaa .

history

The airport was opened in 1939 and served by the airline Aero O / Y as the end point of the Helsinki - Tampere - Vaasa - Oulu - Kemi line served by a De Havilland Dragon Rapide . After the winter war , in which flight operations were temporarily suspended, the scheduled flight led with another stopover in Kokkola via Kemi, Rovaniemi , Sodankylä to Petsamo on the Arctic Coast.

From the beginning of the German-Soviet War in 1941 up to the Continuation War in 1944, the airport was regularly occupied by German flying formations, which changed frequently. When the Wehrmacht withdrew during the Lapland War , Kemi Airport also fell victim to the scorched earth policy : the airport buildings were burned down, the runway destroyed and the area mined with large quantities of explosives. Some of the explosive charges buried at the time were only found and defused in the 1960s.

The following table shows a list of selected active flying units (excluding school and supplementary units) of the Wehrmacht Air Force that were stationed here between 1941 and 1945.

From	To	unit	equipment
September 1941	November 1941	I./KG 26 (I. Gruppe des Kampfgeschwader 26)	Heinkel He 111H
November 1941	December 1941	Parts of I./KG 30	Junkers Ju 88A
August 1942	November 1942	II./KG 30	Junkers Ju 88A
October 1942	August 1943	I./KG 30	Junkers Ju 88A

However, flight operations could already be resumed in the summer of 1945. The passenger terminal was built in 1953 and, with minor modifications and additions, still houses the most important airport services.

Web links

Commons : Kemi-Tornio Airport  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Information about the airport on the website of the airport company
• Airport data on World Aero Data ( 2006 )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Finavia Annual Review 2019. Accessed May 24, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from June 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Virtual Finnair: Lentoasemaesittelyssä: Kemi-Tornion lentoasema
4. ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-45 Finland , p.4 , accessed on September 9, 2014