Aviation and nature advocates have joined forces to press for the reopening of Helsinki’s Malmi Airport (EFHF), which was abruptly closed by Finnish authorities via a Notam issued in 2021. The issue is coming to a head during campaigning for municipal elections to be held in Finland’s capital in April, with city officials pressing to build housing on the historic airport site, removing any prospect of reopening.

According to the Friends of Malmi Airport Association, there is a viable case for resuming flight operations at the airport, which opened in 1936, for general and business aviation, with potentially some regional airline services. Campaigners would also like to see the site used as a hub for sustainable aerospace technology, including work to develop electric aircraft.

Since flight operations were shut down more than three years ago, the Malmi site has been preserved as a nature reserve with its historic buildings intact. Unlike the Finnish capital’s main gateway, Helsinki-Vantaa Airport (EFHK), Malmi is inside the city limits.

Mico Vanhanen, a board member of Friends of Malmi Airport, told AIN that reopening the site as an airport would be a better way to protect the surrounding nature reserve than the city’s plans to build 25,000 homes. In March 2024, the European Commission launched an investigation into whether legal requirements to protect endangered flora and fauna on the site, including nests for flying squirrels, have been undermined by neglect on the part of city officials who have already cut down some trees.

According to the association, Malmi was formerly the second busiest airport in Finland with around 44,000 movements each year. Flight training was a significant part of the mix and Vanhanen, who as an 18-year-old student has ambitions to become a pilot, would like to see this activity restart at an airport with affordable operating costs. “If Malmi had stayed open, I could have had a pilot’s license by now,” he reflected.

Friends of Malmi Airport believes it only needs to convince 15 of Helsinki’s city council members to reverse the permanent closure. They insist that alternative plans for new housing for at least 15,000 people could be implemented in the area alongside an active airport and with the nature reserve preserved. At the same time, the group questions the need for more housing because the city’s population is fairly stagnant.

In 2016, airport operator Finavia relinquished control of Malmi Airport and the EFHF Association was established to keep the facility open. Friends of Malmi Airport board members believe aviation ventures could be persuaded to invest in the airport and restart flight operations. In 2021, Finnair announced plans to buy the electric regional airliner being developed by Sweden-based Heart Aerospace.

“We have had private jets there and this could be one of the best alternatives [for future use], because it is less expensive in terms of airport fees and closer to the city center,” Vanhanen told AIN. “We could also establish new regional connections and there were some domestic [scheduled] flights in the 1990s.”

This story was updated on December 26 to correct the ICAO code for Malmi Airport.