Introduction
Welcome to the fourth part of this new series of flight reviews!
We always take advantage of my son's breaks from preschool to take a trip. For autumn break this year we decided to go to Finland. I'd never been to Finland–outside of changing planes at Helsinki airport–and I thought it would be a fun experience for my son to meet Santa Claus, at the famous Santa Claus Village in Lapland, just two months before Christmas. I was also crossing my fingers to see some Aurora Borealis, after having missed them in Lofoten, Norway the year before due to overcast skies.
In this review, we'll fly Finnair's domestic service back down to Helsinki after an amazing week in Lapland.
There's a short Lapland tourist bonus as the end of this review for those who may be interested.
Routing
Flight routing
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4AY532 - Economy - Rovaniemi ✈ Helsinki - Airbus A320
- 5AY19 - Premium Economy - Helsinki ✈ Dallas - Airbus A350-900
- 6AA1634 - Domestic First - Dallas ✈ San Diego - Airbus A321neo


Pre-flight & Check-in
For our 9AM flight down to Helsinki, we arrived at Rovaniemi airport at around 7:30AM.



Just like our arrival into Rovaniemi earlier in the week, the terminal was very quiet with only one flight departing at that time. As the airport is rather large for just one flight, it's obvious it was built to handle much more capacity during the high season.

There was quite a long queue for the standard Economy check-in counters, but the Priority queue was pleasantly empty.

Thanks to the empty priority check-in lane, we were able to get through the security checkpoint while it was still quiet before the mass of people queuing at the Finnair counter arrived.

Airside, it was even more quiet, and everything was closed. Even lights were off in parts of the terminal that were not in use. The coffee shop did open shortly after we'd arrived airside.

There was a small kids' play area right after security, Christmas themed, naturally.

I'm not terribly surprised that there are no lounges at RVN; however, one would be handy during the busy season when there are many many more flights and passengers.
Boarding
The inbound flight was running a few minutes late, but once it arrived, all passengers deplaned quickly and boarding began shortly after.

Being in Boarding Group 1, we were among the first to board–it seems there was only one or two other passengers in Group 1.


Finnair board from both the forward and rear doors at Rovaniemi. Passengers boarding through the aft door go outside to then go up airstairs to the aircraft…brrrr 🥶

Being in the forward cabin, we were able to stay warm and board through the jetbridge.


The cabin on this A320 is the same as that on the A321 on the way over. Finnair A320s are outfitted with 174 Recaro seats in a standard 3-3 configuration with an average seat pitch of 31 inches–much better than the more-common 28-29" found on most European airlines' more-densely configured narrowbodies.



We had selected seats in the bulkhead row once again, free of charge thanks to our oneworld Emerald and Sapphire status. I believe that without status, front row and exit row seats would have been around 20 EUR per passenger, while standard seats were about 6-8 EUR, if I remember correctly.
This time we had seats on the right side of the aircraft, which gave us more space for our carry-ons in the overhead bin as most of the bin space on the left side is taken up by safety equipment, which was an inconvenience on the outbound flight.

Good legroom in the bulkhead row, as expected.

As on the outbound flight, there is information about the Wi-Fi service on the bulkhead wall.

The flight ended up being full with only 2 empty seats.


Beautiful sunrise colours during boarding.


There was a buy-on-board menu card in the seat pocket. Note that there are more options available for pre-order in Manage My Booking, which includes fresh options like salads and sandwiches, while there are only snacks available for purchase on board, along with drinks.




The Flight
Though the flight was very full, boarding wrapped up rather quickly thanks to boarding from two doors. Boarding was much faster than the A321 on the way out, a longer aircraft, that was boarded through only one door in Helsinki.

We pushed back right after doors were closed and the jetway and stairs were pulled.


As there were no other aircraft on the ground, there was no wait for takeoff.


There were great views of Rovaniemi on the climb out.



The golden morning light made the landscapes even more beautiful.


Our pre-ordered food was delivered by the very friendly cabin crew shortly after takeoff.


The Kids' combo is the same I'd ordered for my son on the previous flight. It contained a turkey & cheese sandwich, juice, Moomin candy, and a Moomin activity booklet with colouring pencils.

The breakfast combo contained a ham & egg sandwich on rye with an apple and a granola yoghurt.

At €9.90 and €11.90 respectively, I felt the meal combos were a decent value by airline buy-on-board food standards.
Nice views during the short flight. It was once again a clear day throughout most of Finland.


The Wi-Fi became available shortly after takeoff.


The messaging plan if free for members of the Finnair Plus programme.

Full streaming-capable internet access is available for €9.95 for Finnair Plus members or €11.95 for non-members, which is a bit on the expensive side for a flight this short. By comparison, on an SAS domestic flight in Norway the year prior, SAS were charging only about €4 for full-flight internet.


While there's no streaming entertainment, there are several features available for free through the Wi-Fi portal.
There's a basic flight map with flight information.


You'll also find magazines in several languages.



As well as a selection of audiobooks.


You can also access the Finnair app and Finnair.com without buying a Wi-Fi package, which allowed me to check the seatmap for our upcoming long-haul flight.

It was sunny the entire length of the country; however, it got progressively more cloudy as we neared Helsinki.


Even with the Wi-Fi turned off below 10,000ft, the flight map continued to function.


Despite the late arrival of the inbound flight in Rovaniemi, we ended up landing in HEL well ahead of schedule.


As we had some extra time thanks to the early arrival, we stopped by the Moomin store in the terminal as my son was enthralled, having recently discovered this Finnish classic.


Bags were already delivered by the time we arrived at the belt. We immediately headed to the airport train station to catch the train to the city centre.



After a quick half-hour ride, we were back in central Helsinki again.

Thank you, Kevin, for this beautiful and well-documented report.
Thanks, indeed, for all the chapters of this series!!
Morning aerials are just breathtaking.
No real need for extra entertainment!
The cabin interior exudes simplicity. Good to hear that the seats are well-padded and confortable!
RVN seems a very bright, modern and welcoming piece of infrastructure. Surprised by that. More so, considering its limited air traffic.
Congrats on catching those green lights!!
Bons vols et à bientôt !
Thanks so much for your comments!
Making getting up in the dark almost worth it haha
During most of the year only Finnair fly to RVN a few times per day, but during high-season mid-November through March there are a ton more flights with Ryanair and EasyJet having a big presence with several frequencies a day and several legacy carriers like AF, BA, IB, and LH flying several times a week. So I imagine it gets very crowded and busy, especially in December right before Christmas.
Merci encore et bonne année !
nice trip report on a short domestic flight within finland and a nice visit to helsinki do catch up with my trip report soon .