Lufthansa’s first flight land­ed in Oulu

Last July, Ger­man air­line Lufthansa announced that it will start direct sched­uled flights between Munich an Oulu in Decem­ber 2023. The first flight land­ed at Oulu Air­port on Decem­ber 16th, and pas­sen­gers arriv­ing from Ger­many were greet­ed with a cer­e­mo­ni­al wel­come.

Mir­ja Vehkaperä, Chair of the City Board of Oulu, who spoke at the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the inau­gur­al flight, said that the direct flight con­nec­tion opens a new chap­ter in the devel­op­ment of the region. Vehkaperä empha­sised that the con­nec­tion sup­ports the deter­mined growth of tourism in Oulu and increas­es the acces­si­bil­i­ty of our region. In her speech, Vehkaperä thanked Lufthansa for their con­fi­dence in Oulu.

– It is great to have an oper­a­tor like Lufthansa in Oulu. The City of Oulu is very com­mit­ted to improv­ing acces­si­bil­i­ty and devel­op­ing air traf­fic. Well-func­tion­ing con­nec­tions pro­mote the vital­i­ty, busi­ness life, and tourism of the area. I would also like to thank Finavia for their close, good coop­er­a­tion, Vehkaperä says.

Main pho­to: The inau­gur­al rib­bon was cut by (from left) Petri Vuori, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent, Sales and Route Devel­op­ment at Finavia, Mir­ja Vehkaperä, Chair ot the City Board of Oulu, Patrick Borg Hed­ley, Lufthansa Group’s Gen­er­al Man­ag­er in Fin­land and the Baltic states, and Yrjö­ta­pio Kivisaari, CEO of Vis­it Oulu.

Juha Ala-Mur­su­la, Direc­tor of Business­Oulu, says that the open­ing of the con­nec­tion is based on per­sis­tent, long-term work.

– The stake­hold­ers in the area have worked togeth­er deter­mined­ly to cre­ate new route open­ings, and now we are wit­ness­ing the first one. More con­nec­tions are still need­ed, and work is being done on them. Yrjö­ta­pio Kivisaari, CEO of Vis­it Oulu, and Juu­so Rönnholm, Business­Oulu Pub­lic Affairs Man­ag­er, have put a lot of effort into estab­lish­ing con­tacts with air­lines and con­duct­ing nego­ti­a­tions late­ly. This work has been and will be sup­port­ed by the exten­sive net­work of stake­hold­ers in the region. It is won­der­ful to be able to col­lab­o­rate with Lufthansa, Ala-Mur­su­la says.

Kivisaari, who also spoke at the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny, says that the new flight con­nec­tion is an excel­lent open­ing, as Ger­many is an impor­tant coun­try for tourism in the Oulu region.

– A sig­nif­i­cant pro­por­tion of for­eign tourists in the region already come from Ger­many. The new route sup­ports this devel­op­ment bril­liant­ly, and we have worked hard to increase inter­na­tion­al tourism, says Kivisaari.

Sched­uled return flights between Munich and Oulu are oper­at­ed on Wednes­days and Sat­ur­days. For the time being, sched­uled win­ter flights will be oper­at­ed until the end of March, but deci­sions on the con­tin­u­a­tion of flights are eager­ly await­ed.

– Our goal is for the Oulu–Munich route to become a year-round, per­ma­nent con­nec­tion. Lufthansa has not yet tak­en any deci­sions on this, and we will, of course, try to do our share. The demand for flights is essen­tial for fur­ther deci­sions. Now it is impor­tant that the route is active­ly used, so that we can con­tin­ue to ben­e­fit from direct con­nec­tions from Europe and get the com­pe­ti­tion we need at Oulu Air­port, Kivisaari con­tin­ues.

Much-need­ed direct link to Cen­tral Europe

Munich, one of Ger­many’s largest cities, is a major trans­port hub. Munich Air­port, the Franz Josef Strauß Air­port, is the sec­ond largest air­port in Ger­many and the sev­enth largest in Europe, with good con­nect­ing flights around the world for busi­ness and leisure trav­ellers alike. The city also has excel­lent rail con­nec­tions to oth­er major Ger­man cities and the rest of Cen­tral Europe.

From the per­spec­tive of leisure tourists from Oulu, the Bavar­i­an region is diverse: there are alpine land­scapes, cas­tles, and atmos­pher­ic vil­lages. As a trav­el des­ti­na­tion, Munich is known for its Christ­mas mar­kets and events, such as the annu­al Okto­ber­fest beer fes­ti­val, as well as the Bay­ern München foot­ball club. Even the Alps are only a cou­ple of hours away by train.

Munich is also a major inter­na­tion­al cen­tre of busi­ness. The Munich region is home to numer­ous large inter­na­tion­al com­pa­nies, includ­ing the head­quar­ters of BMW, Siemens, and Allianz, as well as the Euro­pean head­quar­ters of Microsoft. The route offers new oppor­tu­ni­ties to boost the com­pet­i­tive­ness of com­pa­nies oper­at­ing in our region also when it comes to air freight.