If you’re flying home from Lapland, Rovaniemi Airport can come as a bit of a shock. Despite being Lapland’s capital and largest city, Rovaniemi Airport (RVN) is small, with no lounge, limited seating, and limited food options. Though the airport has undergone recent expansion, there are still plenty of crowds during peak season and what seem like endless queues.
It’s always good to set your expectations, especially if you’ve spent your recent days enjoying Finnish cuisine, husky and reindeer rides, meeting Santa and spotting the Northern Lights!
Here’s what to expect at Rovaniemi Airport, and how to make your experience as good as it can be.
In this post:
Rovaniemi Airport
For much of the year, Rovaniemi Airport (RVN) serves mainly domestic flights to Helsinki for onward connections. However, during peak season, the number of tourists passing through RVN grows year on year, and there are now flights to 38 international destinations. In 2024, there were 949,000 passengers and by 19th December 2025, RVN welcomed its millionth passenger of the year.
Getting There
RVN is 8km from the city centre, but it is also the gateway to many other destinations in Lapland, such as Luosto, Pyhä and Salla.
To reach Rovaniemi city centre, there are airport buses, cheaper buses, and plenty of taxis if you don’t have anything pre-booked.
What Will a Finnair Business Class Ticket Get You?
The aircraft Finnair uses from RVN to Helsinki does not have Business Class. You can’t book Business Class if flying RVN-HEL.
However, if you’re booking a connection via Helsinki with Business on the second leg, you can still book a ‘Business ticket’ and get a number of benefits at RVN Airport (depending on the ticket type), including:
- Priority check-in
- Extra baggage allowance
- Priority boarding
- Lounge access and Business Seating on the second segment of your flight.
As an Oneworld status holder, you will also get a number of benefits when flying in Economy.
Before Check-In
The small size of RVN Airport is evident as soon as you arrive. Thearea consists of just the check-in desks with space to queue (but not to linger), and the Köngäs Cafe, where you can purchase pastries and coffee.
The Check-In Experience
This is largely season and airline-dependent. During my visit, only two airlines, TUI and Finnair, were operating check-in. Finnair had a medium-sized queue of 4 people for priority check-in. At least you can avoid long waits when flying Business, even without a lounge.
Then, there was the TUI queue. The entire Manchester and Bristol flights were dropped off at the same time, so we had to wait on the bus until there was room to enter the airport. The queue was around 45 minutes. Be aware of this if booking a package to Lapland.
Despite the wait, the atmosphere was festive. There was a queue of elves biding time until they picked up the arriving guests and staff, giving out nice list stickers. It did make the time go faster.
Once at the desks, check-in itself was efficient, and security immediately afterwards was impressively quick.
RVN Departures
Entering the departure area, we were greeted by a sea of people. Though there is a good amount of seating, being just before Christmas, there weren’t any available seats.
The main departure area before passport control is in an L shape, with a larger area as you enter, leading down a wide corridor where you’ll find some of the departure gates, shops, and cafes.
You’ll also find a small (but crowded) children’s play area and well-maintained toilets. Free WIFI is also available.
Cafes and Food
Out of high season, the airport would be able to accommodate the number of passengers perfectly, and the number of food options would be fine. The queues weren’t too long, but the seating was the issue. If you’re planning to eat before your flight, be prepared to stand, hover, or take food away if space doesn’t free up.
Ahkio
After a walk around the airport to find the best place to settle, we decided on Ahkio, which looked like it had the best food and plenty of choices.
The food was overpriced, given its very takeaway-style nature and even exceeded the prices I’d seen at some of the most popular Rovaniemi attractions. There was table seating near the kids’ play area, bar-style seating, and high tables at the other side.
We initially ordered in a takeaway box because there was no seating, but we were lucky to get a table before our food arrived. Service was very fast, and we were given a buzzer which prevented people from crowding around the ordering area. There was quite a long queue, but it moved fast.
Takeaway Options
If you can’t find anywhere to sit and eat, there is also a grab-and-go place further along that serves a variety of hot and cold sandwiches and drinks.
Shops
Though there are not many shops, it was nice to have a look around. They mainly sold souvenirs and festive gifts, including a few things we hadn’t spotted in the local shops.
If you need a drink, there are a few waters and soft drinks in the shops.
After Passport Control
Once the departure board flashed ‘Go Through Passport Control’, we went down a flight of stairs to find a very short queue and friendly staff. I often find that processing each person takes longer in Finland, and multiple questions are asked there compared to airports we frequent in Spain and Greece.
Downstairs were the gates of the Bristol and Manchester flights laid out with the typical metal chairs you see in airports (unlike upstairs). Again, there was very limited seating and a small kiosk selling drinks and snacks. We ended up waiting in this area for 45 minutes. Once boarding started, it was fast and efficient.
Improvements
Between 2018 and 2020, Finavia spent EUR 25 million extending RVN Airport, and a further 3 million in 2025 to extend the departures hall by 1,000 sq m and large windows that let in lots of natural light, which was completed in October.
In the News for Delays
Something else you should be aware of when travelling to Lapland is the weather. The snow is one of the main reasons people visit, but snowstorms and freezing temperatures can cause delays due to wind and low visibility.
We were lucky as ever. Since we returned, I’ve read in the news about people being delayed and even stuck at the airport for multiple days, with limited accommodation in the city available and even tour companies transferring passengers to other airports in Lapland only to be delayed again.
Other Airports in Lapland
Of the 5 airports in Finnish Lapland, none have a lounge, but knowing which airports to look for is always useful:
- Kittila (KTT)
- Ivalo (IVL)
- Kuusamo (KAO)
- Kemi-Tornio (KEM)
Finnair flies to all these airports from Helsinki, and all but Kemi-Tornio have seasonal direct flights from the UK.
5 Things to Remember Before You Go to RVN Airport
- Always check flight status
- Don’t leave too much time at the airport
- Eat before if you can
- Be prepared for crowds
- Charge everything before you arrive
Final Thoughts
This is just something to be aware of when travelling to Lapland, and good to know, so you know how long to leave for the airport. It is certainly not somewhere you want to arrive hours early with high expectations, but if you know what you are walking into and plan accordingly, it is manageable. It’s good that they have expanded the terminal recently; it would have been extremely overcrowded.
