Flying inbound Helsinki

Here is some basic information that applies to the commonly flown international routes that land to Helsinki-Vantaa (EFHK) airport.

Routes – arrival from south

All flights arriving to Helsinki from south (Estonian airspace, via airways M608, M857 & P171) must be planned via point INTOR which is located just south of Helsinki TMA.

From here you can expect radar vectoring or RNAV arrival if your aircraft is precision-RNAV capable. Note that the SID/STAR routes are not filed to flight plan’s route section.

In high traffic situations, a holding pattern also exists at point INTOR. Alternative holding is at PVO VOR (inside Helsinki TMA).

Make first contact to EFHK_APP (not EFES_CTR) when arriving from this direction.

 

Routes – arrival from west

Arrivals from west and south-west will first contact EFES_CTR (Tampere radar) who will give the appropriate descent and inbound clearance.

If you are arriving from Stockholm / Oslo area, then you are flying the route MAR – N873 – LAKUT. After point LAKUT, you can expect RNAV arrival if you are capable for that and if not, a direct clearance to VTI VOR and radar vectors after it. Holding, if required, is performed over point LAKUT.

If you are arriving from central Europe, plan your flight to enter the Finnish airspace via point ALAMI (= airways P606 or N746). After that the route should be: ALAMI – P606 – PEXEN. After point PEXEN, expect either radar vectors or RNAV arrival route. PEXEN also has a holding pattern.

 

Routes – arrival from east 

Flights arriving from the east (from Russian airspace) will enter the airspace via point LEDUN (arrival via airway B160).

From here you can expect radar vectoring or RNAV arrival if your aircraft is precision-RNAV capable. Note that the SID/STAR routes are not filed to flight plan’s route section.

If traffic requires, holding is performed over PVO VOR.

Make first contact to EFHK_APP (Helsinki radar), when arriving from this direction.

 

 How not to plan your flight :-)

Just as a tip… Some free route planners make this mistake when planning a flight to Helsinki. It will cost you some 25 minutes of extra flight time and make your route look funny, so make sure you do not plan your flight like this:

“UN873 MAR UY74 PIR UY72 ENOKI”

If you look at the chart, the PIR VOR is located some 80 nm north of Helsinki, so please use the (correct) route examples above instead.