Helsinki Airport’s terminal expansion

Finavia has launched a 900 million euros investment programme at Helsinki Airport, the purpose of which is to increase the capacity of international traffic. The airport prepares to serve 20 million passengers by 2020. In this project, Sweco undertakes both structural engineering and project management duties.

The development programme scheduled for 2014–2020 is mainly targeted at increasing the check-in and transit traffic capacity and improving the traffic arrangements. The objective is to ensure the strong competitive position of Helsinki Airport in the transit traffic between Europe and Asia.

The project is very extensive and the implementation requires awareness of the airport environment’s special characteristics in an exceptional operational environment as well as seamless information flow. The aim is to achieve the installation work as quickly and smoothly as possible, without any disturbances to flight operations. The designs, structures and installation techniques are developed in cooperation with the contractor in order to find the best possible solutions, both production-wise and financially.

Risk management is also essential. In order to minimise the possible risks, diverse studies and reviews are carried out in the background. Special conditions often require special structures, and our specialists are experienced in designing them.

An important factor behind the design process is adaptability. Sweco utilises an open design method, where fixed structures are designed so that they can be reconstructed to adapt to the changing needs and situations.

Cooperation between all the project parties is vital to the project, as it includes so many different operators and interest groups. All of their wishes need to be taken into account during the design process so that the best possible end result can be achieved.