WHY ROVANIEMI – THE OFFICIAL HOME OF SANTA CLAUS – IS NOW EVEN MORE ACCESSIBLE TO EUROPE

What links Düsseldorf, Istanbul, Milan and Paris? Each of these cities now offers new flights to Rovaniemi in Finland during winter, providing an excellent opportunity for visitors to discover Santa Claus’ official home.

Rovaniemi in Finland is the official home of Santa Claus and the capital of Lapland. In 2019, the unique destination was visited by 373,000 travellers in 2019. These visitors generated close to 740,000 registered bed nights. Two thirds of those visitors came from international markets (479,000 bed nights in 2019), the two most important markets being Europe (269,000 bed nights) and Asia (164,000 bed nights).

While the Asian market is unlikely to recover until 2023, Santa Claus and his elves are expecting to see an influx of European travellers as new flights were recently added. On December 4, Air France opened two weekly flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle to the heart of Lapland. The winter route will serve French and European travellers by offering flights to Rovaniemi until March 5, 2022.

German airline Eurowings also launched its flight from Düsseldorf to Rovaniemi in early December. The airline flies to the home of Santa Claus every Sunday until March 20. Additional flights are available on December 30, January 4 and 6.

Flights to Rovaniemi from Istanbul, with Turkish Airlines, run every Thursday and Sunday from December 16 until February 6.

And finally, from December 19 visitors can fly with Easyjet from Milan Malpensa to the heart Lapland every Wednesday and Sunday until January 9. The airline also flies twice weekly from London Gatwick until March 23.

Other passengers have the option of daily connections out of Helsinki with Finnair or Norwegian.

Besides paying a visit to Santa Claus, Rovaniemi remains an attractive destination for skiing, observing the amazing Northern Lights or just for spending a night in an igloo.