An Empirical Analysis of Finnish Air Travel Patterns

<p><span lang="EN-CA">As one of the few countries in the world that lie partially within the Arctic Circle, Finland exhibits intriguing airport traffic flows.<span>  </span>The three airports with the greatest passenger volumes are Helsinki-Vantaa, Oulu, and Rovaniemi.<span>  </span>At the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, domestic passenger flows peak during the cold weather months, while international traffic peaks during the summer months.<span>  </span>Both domestic and international travel reach their respective apexes during the Spring and Fall months in Oulu.<span>  </span>In Rovaniemi, the coldest destination of the three areas, air passenger flows reach their maxima every year in December.<span>  </span>To date, there have been very few formal studies of air travel demand in Finland.<span>  </span>Because of unique geographic features, location, and tourism patterns, econometric modeling analysis may yield interesting results for airport traffic to these regions that may differ from those of other areas.<span>  </span>Although the Aurora Borealis draws visitors to, and within, this Nordic economy, the impacts of the Northern Lights on air passenger traffic have not been extensively quantified.<span>  </span>A generalized least squares nonlinear ARMAX estimator is employed for the empirical analyses of traffic flows to each airport.<span>  </span>Preliminary empirical results confirm positive linkages between Northern Light intensities and air passenger flows to all three airports.</span></p>