Before opening the new south wing of Helsinki Airport this summer, Finavia will invite 200 volunteers to a unique deployment test in role play as passengers on Thursday 6th July 2017.
Finavia has an ongoing development programme at Helsinki Airport, worth of almost one billion euro, which will expand the airport and increase its capacity. With the development programme, Finavia is prepared to serve 20 million passengers at Helsinki Airport per year in 2020.
The first part of the new extension, the south wing, designed by PES Architects, is now ready for testing. The deployment test, the largest in the history of the airport, is designed to ensure before deployment that the terminal operations and processes at the south wing work as they should.
“The test day is arranged in order to ensure a smooth, pleasant travel experience, which is the cornerstone of all of our services,” said Helsinki Airport Director Ville Haapasaari from Finavia. “Test passengers will have a unique day at the airport and the possibility to look behind the scenes.
“During the test day, the visibility of signs, passenger pleasantness and the technological solutions of the airport, among others, will be under scrutiny. For example, we will test how well the test passengers find their way to the departure gate and how wheelchair passengers can move around at the airport. We will also check practical things, such as the operation of doors and moving walkways and the smoothness of boarding processes. The feedback we will receive from the test passengers is valuable, because we can then take passengers’ wishes and needs into consideration in finishing off the south wing.
“We want to maintain our strongest competitive asset, that is providing all services under the same roof and ensuring easy access from one gate to another, despite expanding the terminal. This is why the airport’s first travellator will now be installed to the south wing. Hot-water dispensers, again, are designed especially for our Chinese passengers, our fastest growing passenger group.”
