Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic ADVERTISEMENTFlying into Inari in the far north of Finland felt like landing at the end of the world.\u00a0In every direction, trees and snow. Now and then, we got a glimpse of warmly lit cabins, and occasionally sprawling resorts, dotted amongst the trees.\u00a0It was snowing, and the temperature hovered around five degrees below zero. As we touched down on the icy runway, I\u2019ll admit I felt a flicker of concern about the stopping power of the Finnair Airbus A321 that had brought us up from Helsinki.But Ivalo Airport was well prepared, and the landing was smooth and uneventful. We rolled gently to the end of the 2,500-metre runway, slowing steadily as the pilots avoided heavy braking in the snowy conditions.An up-and-coming destinationIvalo Airport is the gateway to Inari, Finland\u2019s largest municipality by area, but also the most sparsely populated. Part of Finnish Lapland, it offers a wealth of winter experiences, just without the elves or the man in red.This is a winter wonderland for the more discerning traveller: fantasy-level snowfall, breathtaking landscapes, and endless possibilities for activity\u2014or inactivity. Husky sledding, snowmobiling, skiing, snowboarding, reindeer herding\u2014Inari has it all, and then some.If you prefer to relax and simply soak up the scenery, you\u2019re in luck. Saunas abound in this frozen land. At the beautiful Star Arctic Hotel, where we stayed, some cabins featured private saunas, while others had full glass ceilings for aurora watching right from your bed.Here in Saariselk\u00e4, accommodation options are plentiful, but the Star Arctic is super convenient for the ski slopes and for the entrance to the longest toboggan run in the country. Plummeting down Kaunisp\u00e4\u00e4 hill, it descends 1.8 km deep into the forest, dropping around 180 metres.However you choose to get out of your resort, as soon as you do, the landscape will take your breath away. Inari is wild, exhilarating, bleak, terrifying and jaw-droppingly beautiful all at once.\u00a0Unlike more popular Lapland destinations like Rovaniemi, it has not suffered from overtourism. In fact, it\u2019s probably one of the most unspoiled places left in Western Europe.\u201cThat\u2019s Russia over there,\u201d my snowshoeing instructor noted, pointing at the endless sea of pine trees stretching as far as the eye could see. \u201cOf course, you can\u2019t see the borders from here,\u201d she chuckled.Inari has become a rising star for adventure seekers wanting to experience the real Lapland. Last winter, nine international airlines operated seasonal services to Ivalo Airport, including a new route from British Airways – its most northerly destination to date.Finnish Lapland, in general, is becoming increasingly popular year on year. Across the Finavia-managed airports of Rovaniemi, Kittil\u00e4, Ivalo, Kuusamo, and Kemi-Tornio, 1.8 million passengers arrived in 2024, up almost 20 per cent on the year before.How do they keep the runways clear?With average temperatures plummeting as low as -18 degrees and around 200 days of snow a year, how can these airports safely handle all these flights?\u00a0Back in Helsinki, I caught up with Finavia\u2019s Pyry Pennanen, head of airfield maintenance, to find out more about what goes into keeping airports operating in such extreme conditions.ADVERTISEMENT\u201cWe basically promise summer-like conditions in our runways year-round,\u201d says Pennanen. \u201cBut in Helsinki, winter is a very real thing.\u201dHelsinki is a different proposition from Ivalo. Handling an average of 350 departures a day, it\u2019s an important international hub, with several flights landing and taking off every hour. With around 100 days of snow a year, keeping the runway clear is essential to maintaining Helsinki\u2019s reputation as an airport that runs like clockwork.\u201cTo keep the aircraft on schedule, we have 13 minutes to clear the runway, but we can do it in 11,\u201d Pennanen explains. \u201cThe most we have to do is around once per hour if it\u2019s really snowing, but on the worst days, it can be once every 20 minutes.\u201dDelivering this speedy clearance is a team of around 15 machines that all head out together to make the 3,500-metre runway safe. The crown jewels of this bizarre ballet of beasts are the Vammas PSB 5500 sweeper blowers, developed in partnership with Helsinki Airport.ADVERTISEMENTThese 31-tonne monsters stand 3.7 metres tall and stretch a massive 25 metres long. They can clear a 5.5 metre span of runway in just 11 minutes, thanks to their unique trifecta of snow-clearing features.Designed to plough, sweep and blow (hence the PSB in the name), the process begins with a spring-loaded cutting edge on its nine metre plough, keeping contact firm on uneven surfaces. Behind that, a dense broom made of stiff metal bristles sweeps up any stubborn ice on the ground. Finally, the powerful jet air blower shoots loose snow and ice away from the runway at speeds of more than 400 km an hour.Joining the convoy is a terrifying-looking machine, a self-propelled snow blower made by Overaasen in Norway.\u00a0 A towering 4.5 metres tall, this 1,500-horsepower behemoth can smash even the most stubborn ice off surfaces, clearing up to 10,000 tonnes an hour and casting the snow 35 metres away from the runway.\u201cThe most challenging conditions are when we have freezing rain,\u201d says Pennanen. \u201cWhen it\u2019s minus ten and the freezing rain is still falling, it\u2019s very difficult to deal with.\u201dADVERTISEMENTIn these conditions, the expansive de-icer comes into play. Spraying potassium formate on the runway surface will melt the ice in under an hour, and keep the surface ice-free for several hours beyond. The chemical is readily decomposed and contains no nitrogen, making it safe for the environment.Smaller beasts like wheel loaders, tractors, lorries and chemical sprayers also help keep the runways clear.\u00a0 In all, Finnaiva\u2019s fleet in Helsinki spans around 200 vehicles that work from October to May. In the months in between, the team carries out essential maintenance on the vehicles to keep them mission-ready for the coming winter.In the Arctic Circle, conditions are even more extremeIn Finnish Lapland, snow usually covers the ground from early November to late May (although it was worryingly late to arrive in some parts last winter). Across the region, you can expect from 25 cm to as much as a metre of snow on the ground throughout the winter.With over 200 days of snow in a typical year, Finavia\u2019s Lapland airports have their work cut out. Yet, as a company, Finavia has never had to close an airport due to inclement weather, and the number of cancelled or delayed flights is minimal.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENTUp in the Arctic Circle, Ivalo Airport sees more snow than most.\u201cWe operate in winter conditions for seven months,\u201d says Jarmo Pyh\u00e4j\u00e4rvi, Ivalo Airport manager. \u201cWe are the most northerly airport in the European Union, and we operate in Arctic conditions.\u201dLike Helsinki, Ivalo Airport has a fleet of machinery to keep the runway and taxiways clear. These include plough-sweep-blow units, high power snow blowers, tractors, brush blowers and more.Because the airport is so small, its staff headcount is low. In the winter, it doubles from its summer level of 25 employees to around 50. Fifteen of these people will be trained to work on maintenance, keeping the airport clear of ice and snow.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENT\u201cMany of the staff will have a double role,\u201d says Finavia\u2019s communications manager Elina Suominen. \u201cOne minute they might be checking in a bag, the next they\u2019re doing security, or driving a snow plough.\u201dSeeing these big snow-clearing beasts in action was astounding. The sheer power of the vehicles and the incredible volume of snow they move is incredible, with clearing operations performed not at a slow plod, but at speeds of 40 to 50 km an hour.\u00a0Across all its airports, Finavia uses sunken sensors to monitor the conditions on the runway. Tiny changes can be tracked, giving the operator early warning of incoming weather, sometimes six to eight hours in advance.As with Helsinki, it is not so much the snowfall that\u2019s a problem, but rather the temperature itself. When the freezing rain hits in Ivalo, the lower number of flight arrivals means their strategy for clearance is slightly different.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENT\u201cWe do what we call precision management maintenance, which means that the runway is cleared just before the flight comes in,\u201d explains Suominen. \u201cThe snow protects the runway from the freezing rain, and we let it work as a shield and only take it off at the last moment. This way we don’t need to use any chemicals.\u201dPyh\u00e4j\u00e4rvi recalls a winter in 1999 when the temperature dropped to an eye-watering minus 50 degrees. The most recent extreme temperature event, in 2023, saw the mercury drop to minus 35. Even then, the airport cancelled just one solitary flight, maintaining all other operations as normal.Amazingly, Ivalo Airport does all this with net-zero emissions. In the last 10 years, the airport has cut its emissions by 98 per cent through the use of renewable energy. The remaining two per cent is offset through approved programmes. Its snow-clearing machinery all runs on biofuels.Innovating for even safer Arctic Circle flightsCompanies like Finavia are essential in developing the technologies and equipment required to keep the world\u2019s most extreme airports open all year round.ADVERTISEMENTMost recently, Ivalo Airport has worked with a number of Finnish companies to test autonomous snow-clearing operations. Working with Nokian Tyres, snow removal equipment manufacturer Vammas (Fortbrand), energy company Neste and machinery manufacturer Valtra, they developed a new concept for optimising snow removal at remote airports.The vision is that, when airports like Ivalo are closed for the night, or running on a skeleton crew, and the snow starts to fall, an autonomous tractor will spring to life. Using optimised, predefined waylines, the tractor will clear the runway of snow, making it safe for the next plane to land. If it\u2019s running low on fuel, it will refuel itself using low-emission biodiesel.Pilot projects have been very promising, although the autonomous tractors aren\u2019t being used yet. Nevertheless, Finavia is confident of success in the longer term.Also testing autonomous operations is fellow Arctic Circle operator Swedavia, manager of Sweden\u2019s airports. This winter, it has tested eight PSB machines in autonomous mode, and it is keen to roll this out to actual operations.ADVERTISEMENT\u201cWe are still in the testing phase, but this winter we have made major steps forward,\u201d says Ali Sadeghi, chief asset officer of facilities and systems at Swedavia Airports. \u201cThese additions to our snow clearance fleet are a strategic step and will help us make Swedavia\u2019s snow clearance more safe, efficient and predictable as well as climate friendly.\u201dLike Finavia, Swedavia has not had to close an airport because of bad weather for a very long time. \u201cStockholm Arlanda Airport has an excellent record of dealing with snow,\u201d adds Sadeghi. \u201cWe have never closed the airport due to snow or bad weather in over 60 years.\u201dNext door in Norway, Oslo Airport undertook intensive testing of autonomous ploughs for over a year, deploying them in daily operations in 2021. Up to six enormous machines move simultaneously, all with no driver onboard, controlled either from a command vehicle or from the comfort of an office desk.Powered by cloud-based software known as the Yeti Autonomy Service Platform (YASP), developed by Yeti Move, the vehicles are connected so that they know where to go and what to do. There are high hopes that such advancements could make snow clearance operations even more eco-friendly in the future.ADVERTISEMENT\u201cYASP ultimately cuts fuel consumption and emissions,\u201d John Emil Halden, COO of Yeti Move, tells Business Norway. \u201cOur solution optimises power use by ensuring operations are consistent at all times. Also, well-planned operations with autonomous vehicles will reduce the driving needed to complete the job, and fewer vehicles are needed overall.\u201dAs a traveller, I remain in awe of these incredible airports and their ability to keep flying regardless of the conditions. And I am thankful, because without airports like Ivalo, it wouldn\u2019t be so easy to discover the wonders of the truly unspoilt corners of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic ADVERTISEMENTFlying into Inari in the far north of Finland felt like landing at the end of the world.\u00a0In every direction, trees and snow. Now and then, we got a glimpse of warmly lit cabins, and occasionally sprawling resorts, dotted amongst the trees.\u00a0It was snowing,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":280785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-280784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-travel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280786,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280784\/revisions\/280786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}