Originally Posted by
florens
HEL is currently undergoing expansion and a couple of gates are now unavailable. At certain times of the day the schengen area gets packed with international flights, mostly leaving to Asia, therefore some short haul (and long haul, too) flights leave from remote stands. However, this will hopefully be over once the expansion is complete.
Helsinki Airport was, by far, the most impressive aspect of the entire trip. Last time I was in Helsinki, almost 20 years ago, the airport was (if I recall correctly) a grim, claustrophobic place - today it's one of the most stylish and attractive airports I've ever used. Both lounges were superb, with very good food and drink, and very lightly-used, too (although as I was leaving to get the flight to London the lounge was starting to get busy and the queue stretched quite a way down the corridor).