The Committee on Transport and Communications does not consider the government’s measures with regard to Malmi Airport to be sufficient. The committee rejected the Government’s proposal to delete the Parliament’s statement of requirements on the matter as fulfilled.
The government justified its proposal with its financial subsidies to airports in Southern Finland, which, however, have been used mainly to pay for the repair debt incurred during decades, i.e. for the refurbishment of the airports. There haev been no obligations to support the transfer of Malmi’s operations attached to the granting of the aid. Environmental permits of the nearby airfields do not allow even a fraction of Malmi’s operations to be transferred to them.
In practice, securing the continuity of Malmi’s operations requires opening Malmi Airport for aviation or building a completely new airport in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The transfer of aviation activities does not, however, safeguard Malmi’s cultural heritage and natural values. The Finnish Civil Aviation Association has presented a plan for a new airport east of Helsinki to the Government and Parliament. The state has not yet taken action.
The Committee ‘s reasoning
The Committee on Transport and Communications still considers the Parliament’s statement necessary and is concerned about the restrictions on activities related to authorization procedures, such as environmental permits, at different aerodromes. According to the study obtained in expert consultation, environmental permits of the airfields that have received state subsidies, as referred to in the government’s annual report, impose restrictions on the amount of activity that the airfields may have, and in practice these restrictions do not currently allow Malmi’s operations to be transferred to these substitutive airfields. The Committee attaches great importance to the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Ministry of the Environment cooperating both with each other and with the authorities and aerodromes under their jurisdiction in order to resolve the problems imposed by permit conditions and other similar problems, so that Malmi’s activities can continue as intended by the Parliament in its statement.
Lex Malmi citizens’ law initiative (in Finnish)
https://www.eduskunta.fi/FI/vaski/EduskuntaAloite/Documents/KAA_1+2017.pdf
Government’s annual report, appendix 3 (page 109, in Finnish)
https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/handle/10024/163054