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Ivalo Airport lies in Finnish Lapland, some 11 kilometres southwest of the town of Ivalo in the municipality of Inari, and holds the distinction of being the northernmost airport in Finland and in the European Union. Operated by Finavia and equipped with an ILS, it is a genuinely remote yet well-appointed field that handles both scheduled airline traffic and general aviation, making it an interesting northern waypoint for a simulator pilot exploring the Arctic.
Ivalo Airport (ICAO: EFIV) serves the village of Törmänen and the wider Inari municipality in Finnish Lapland, roughly 11 kilometres southwest of Ivalo itself and about 25 kilometres north of the Saariselkä resort. Operated by Finavia, it is the northernmost airport in both Finland and the European Union, and its combination of a long ILS-equipped main runway with a shorter secondary strip, set against the backdrop of the Arctic fells and Lake Inari, makes it a distinctive destination for a VFR or IFR flight into the far north.
The airfield sits at the top of Finland, near the village of Törmänen in Inari municipality, 11 kilometres southwest of Ivalo and 25 kilometres north of Saariselkä. As the northernmost airport in the country it is a natural gateway for flights heading into or out of the Lapland wilderness, with Lake Inari and the fells providing prominent surrounding terrain.
Ivalo has two paired hard-surfaced runways. The main runway, 04/22, is 8,157 feet long, lit, and served by an ILS on runway 22. A secondary runway, 08/26, is 5,592 feet long and also lit. Field elevation is 472 feet.
The airfield provides an ATIS on 123.2 MHz and a Tower frequency on 118 MHz. The main runway, 22, is equipped with an instrument landing system, supporting instrument approaches into this high-latitude field.
Useful visual references when approaching the field include the town of Ivalo itself to the northeast, the resort of Saariselkä some 25 kilometres to the south, and the expanse of Lake Inari nearby, all set within the characteristic fell landscape of Finnish Lapland.
The airfield's origins lie in wartime necessity: a military airfield was completed at Ivalo in 1943 by German forces, but it was destroyed during their withdrawal from Lapland in 1945. The airport was rebuilt by 1950, and in 1955 Aero (the forerunner of Finnair) began regular services between Rovaniemi and Ivalo. Growth through the following decades saw a new 2,000-metre main runway completed in 1973, jet traffic beginning the following year, and a year-round scheduled route opened in 1975. The runway was further lengthened to 2,500 metres in 1981, the terminal area was expanded in 1994, and a new airport building together with an air traffic control tower was completed in 1999. Finavia recognised the airport as its Airport of the Year in 2001.
Ivalo remains one of Finland's busier regional airports by passenger numbers, with Finnair operating year-round flights to Helsinki and Kirkenes and a range of seasonal international carriers, including Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Edelweiss Air, Eurowings, Lufthansa, Transavia, TUI fly Netherlands and Vueling, bringing winter charter traffic from cities such as Vienna, London-Gatwick, Zurich, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Paris-Orly and Amsterdam. The field is also home to the flying club Tunturi-Ilmailijat ry, which bases its general aviation activity at Ivalo alongside the airline operations.
