Lufthansa’s direct flights between Oulu and Munich con­tin­ue and extend into year-round con­nec­tion

Ger­man air­line Lufthansa is set to con­tin­ue its direct flights between Munich and Oulu for the upcom­ing sum­mer sea­son. Addi­tion­al­ly, win­ter flights will extend into the next win­ter, estab­lish­ing this his­toric route as a year-round con­nec­tion. This makes it the only year-round inter­na­tion­al flight con­nec­tion in North­ern Fin­land.

The round-trip flights will oper­ate on Tues­days and Sat­ur­days start­ing from March 31 dur­ing the sum­mer sea­son. Win­ter flights will con­tin­ue on Wednes­days and Sun­days until the end of March and resume on Octo­ber 30.

Yrjö­ta­pio Kivisaari, Pres­i­dent & CEO of Oulu Trav­el Mar­ket­ing Ltd, empha­sis­es the sig­nif­i­cance of the con­tin­ued ser­vice for the entire Oulu region’s tourism:

– A year-round, direct three-hour con­nec­tion from Munich to Oulu brings a new pos­i­tive momen­tum and growth to inter­na­tion­al tourism in the Oulu region. Ger­mans have been the sec­ond-largest group of inter­na­tion­al vis­i­tors to Oulu in recent years, just after vis­i­tors from Nor­way. How­ev­er, with the year-round flight con­nec­tion, Ger­many is expect­ed to sur­pass Nor­way as the lead­ing depar­ture coun­try. The con­tin­u­a­tion of the route also enables diverse col­lab­o­ra­tion with Ger­man tour oper­a­tors, Kivisaari says.

The Oulu–Munich flight route was launched on Decem­ber 16, 2023, and has been oper­a­tional for a month with a pos­i­tive recep­tion.

– We are thrilled to announce a con­tin­u­a­tion of our brand-new Oulu to Munich route dur­ing Sum­mer 2024 mak­ing Lufthansa the only glob­al air­line to fly sched­uled non-stop flights from North­ern Fin­land to the heart of Europe. A month after the much antic­i­pat­ed and cel­e­brat­ed launch of Lufthansa’s Oulu to Munich flights, the con­tin­u­a­tion of our ser­vice beyond the cur­rent win­ter months pro­vides numer­ous oppor­tu­ni­ties for the region­al tourism indus­try, cor­po­rate trav­el­ers as well as leisure trav­ellers, says Patrick Borg Hed­ley, Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Fin­land and Baltic states for Lufthansa Group air­lines.

Munich Air­port, Franz Josef Strauss Air­port, is Ger­many’s sec­ond-largest and Europe’s sev­enth-largest air­port, offer­ing excel­lent con­nec­tions for both busi­ness and leisure trav­el­ers world­wide. Dur­ing the sum­mer sea­son, the Oulu–Munich flight sched­ule will shift by one day com­pared to the win­ter sched­ule to pro­vide pas­sen­gers with com­pre­hen­sive onward con­nec­tions through Munich Air­port. Sum­mer flights will con­nect Oulu con­ve­nient­ly to over fifty con­nect­ing flights, includ­ing des­ti­na­tions like Paris, Madrid, Vien­na, and Brus­sels.

Year-round con­nec­tion pro­vides new oppor­tu­ni­ties for Oulu region busi­ness­es

Year-round flight con­nec­tiv­i­ty opens new oppor­tu­ni­ties for Oulu busi­ness­es in the Ger­man mar­ket and Cen­tral Europe.

– Lufthansa’s com­mit­ment to Oulu is sig­nif­i­cant. Year-round con­nec­tiv­i­ty opens up new pos­si­bil­i­ties for Oulu busi­ness­es to utilise a direct route to Cen­tral Europe. From the per­spec­tive of air freight as well, year-round reg­u­lar con­nec­tiv­i­ty is ben­e­fi­cial. I antic­i­pate this flight con­nec­tion bring­ing new growth to the Oulu region, not only in tourism but also across var­i­ous indus­tries, says Juha Ala-Mur­su­la, CEO of Business­Oulu.

Munich is a promi­nent inter­na­tion­al busi­ness cen­tre and one of Ger­many’s most eco­nom­i­cal­ly impor­tant cities. Munich is home to a num­ber of major inter­na­tion­al com­pa­nies, includ­ing the Euro­pean head­quar­ters of BMW, Siemens, Allianz and Microsoft. In addi­tion, Nokia has sig­nif­i­cant oper­a­tions in Munich and Ulm, which is just over an hour away from Munich by train.

Bavaria is a diverse region with alpine panora­mas, cas­tles, and dra­mat­ic cities, all eas­i­ly acces­si­ble to tourists fly­ing from Oulu. Christ­mas mar­kets, the Okto­ber­fest beer fes­ti­val, and the FC Bay­ern München foot­ball team all con­tribute to Munich’s pop­u­lar­i­ty as a trav­el des­ti­na­tion. It only takes a few hours by train to reach the Alps from the city.

Flights for the upcom­ing sum­mer and win­ter are now avail­able

The year-round air link is expect­ed to increase com­pe­ti­tion and enhance pas­sen­ger num­bers at Oulu air­port, which have declined since the epi­dem­ic years. The goal is for Oulu Air­port to regain its posi­tion as the sec­ond busiest air­port in Fin­land.

– The Oulu–Munich route has been an excel­lent addi­tion to our air­port routes. The con­nec­tion has enjoyed pop­u­lar­i­ty among pas­sen­gers and sig­nif­i­cant­ly strength­ened the acces­si­bil­i­ty of North­ern Fin­land to Cen­tral Europe. The pop­u­lar­i­ty is now evi­dent in the con­tin­u­a­tion of flights year-round, which we are tru­ly pleased about, says Petri Vuori who is respon­si­ble for route devel­op­ment at Finavia.

Flights for both the upcom­ing sum­mer and win­ter sea­sons are already avail­able for book­ing on lufthansa.com.

Sum­mer flight sched­ules from March 31, 2024 (as per Jan­u­ary 17, 2024):

Sat­ur­day
LH2490 Munich 12:10 Oulu 16:15
LH2491 Oulu 17:05 Munich 19:10

Tues­day
LH2490 Munich 12:10 Oulu 16:15
LH2491 Oulu 17:05 Munich 19:10

For addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

• Yrjö­ta­pio Kivisaari (CEO, Oulu Trav­el Mar­ket­ing Ltd // p. +358 40 546 6283, yt@visitoulu.fi)
• Juha Ala-Mur­su­la (CEO, Business­Oulu // p. +358 40 559 2030, juha.ala-mursula@businessoulu.com)
• Juu­so Rönnholm (Pub­lic Affairs Man­ag­er, Business­Oulu // p. +358 50 574 1504, juuso.ronnholm@businessoulu.com)
• Petri Vuori (Senior Vice Pres­i­dent, Sales and Routes Devel­op­ment / Finavia // p. +358 407221256, petri.vuori@finavia.fi) and/or
• Patrick Borg-Hed­ley (Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Sales, Fin­land & Baltic States, Lufthansa Group // p. +358 40 9207598, patrick.borg-hedley@dlh.de)