London Gatwick - Helsinki Flight Report

EZY 8967

Departure : 25 May 2009 0825
Scheduled Arrival : 1320

While I'm happy to take a cheap flight, I was too tired from my transatlantic flight the day before to wake up at 4am to get to Luton or Stansted. My Finland trip had a very interesting reason. I had some hotel loyalty program points to use up, and apparently the program was having a fire sale for redemptions. In Europe, I was looking for larger cities to take advantage of the offer, and the final choices were Porto and Helsinki. Having been to Portugal in 2008, I picked a more exotic location - Helsinki.
easyJet was the cheapest option to get to Helsinki. Ryanair's Tampere flight was too troublesome as I had to sit on a bus for a long time to transfer to Helsinki. With a departure from Gatwick, I felt like flying a normal flight once again.
I took the ultra-expensive Gatwick Express to the airport, and transferred to a free train service to the North Terminal.

Bridge Above the Tarmac

I saw this on the news when it opened, but didn't realize I would actually use it today. My easyJet flight was parked off the main terminal in the satellite building, and after a long escalator ride, I was above everyone and the planes were passing below me!

Plane Spotting

With a bit of time left, I hurried to take some more photos of this massive bridge and the range of traditional and low-cost carriers parked around me. Soon I was on the plane, not among the first to board though, but found a window seat nevertheless.

Goodbye Cloudy London!

The weather turned cloudy that morning and it was a gloomy day in London once again. It was actually clear when I landed the night before. The forecast for Helsinki was a mix of sun and clouds and an occasional shower for my stay. It was a balmy 20C though!

Where are we?

Without PTVs and air show, I had no idea where we were. We probably skirted the Dutch coast, passed Copenhagen somewhere along the way, and crossed Sweden.

Enjoying the blue skies ...

I bought a light breakfast sandwich at the terminal and had a bite while the flight attendants tried to sell food and the others counted down to arrival in about 3 hours. It was a full flight, and considering I paid only about 150 pounds for a roundtrip fairly last minute, I was not so surprised.

Welcome to Finland

After crossing a body of water, I suspected the land mass and the many islands were part of Finland. Soon we would start descending into Helsinki!

Welcome to Helsinki!

My plan to visit all the Nordic / Scandinavian countries is almost complete. I visited Stockholm in 2006 and Copenhagen in 2007. Next stop would be Norway! I expected to see a lot of interesting airplanes and lots of Finnair jets here.

With barely any planning beforehand, all I knew was there is a city bus from the airport into town that takes about 30 minutes, and my hotel is walkable from the train station. Luckily I had brought some euro change left over from my last trip.

Wallpaper Source : easyJet


EZY 8967 Departure : 25 May 2009 0825 Scheduled Arrival : 1320 While I'm happy to take a cheap flight, I was too tired from my transatlantic flight the day before to wake up at 4am to get to Luton or Stansted. My Finland trip had a very interesting reason. I had some hotel loyalty program points to use up, and apparently the program was having a fire sale for redemptions. In Europe, I was looking for larger cities to take advantage of the offer, and the final choices were Porto and Helsinki. Having been to Portugal in 2008, I picked a more exotic location - Helsinki. easyJet was the cheapest option to get to Helsinki. Ryanair's Tampere flight was too troublesome as I had to sit on a bus for a long time to transfer to Helsinki. With a departure from Gatwick, I felt like flying a normal flight once again. I took the ultra-expensive Gatwick Express to the airport, and transferred to a free train service to the North Terminal.




Bridge Above the Tarmac I saw this on the news when it opened, but didn't realize I would actually use it today. My easyJet flight was parked off the main terminal in the satellite building, and after a long escalator ride, I was above everyone and the planes were passing below me!



Plane Spotting With a bit of time left, I hurried to take some more photos of this massive bridge and the range of traditional and low-cost carriers parked around me. Soon I was on the plane, not among the first to board though, but found a window seat nevertheless.







Goodbye Cloudy London! The weather turned cloudy that morning and it was a gloomy day in London once again. It was actually clear when I landed the night before. The forecast for Helsinki was a mix of sun and clouds and an occasional shower for my stay. It was a balmy 20C though!



Where are we? Without PTVs and air show, I had no idea where we were. We probably skirted the Dutch coast, passed Copenhagen somewhere along the way, and crossed Sweden.











Enjoying the blue skies ... I bought a light breakfast sandwich at the terminal and had a bite while the flight attendants tried to sell food and the others counted down to arrival in about 3 hours. It was a full flight, and considering I paid only about 150 pounds for a roundtrip fairly last minute, I was not so surprised.



Welcome to Finland After crossing a body of water, I suspected the land mass and the many islands were part of Finland. Soon we would start descending into Helsinki!















Welcome to Helsinki! My plan to visit all the Nordic / Scandinavian countries is almost complete. I visited Stockholm in 2006 and Copenhagen in 2007. Next stop would be Norway! I expected to see a lot of interesting airplanes and lots of Finnair jets here. With barely any planning beforehand, all I knew was there is a city bus from the airport into town that takes about 30 minutes, and my hotel is walkable from the train station. Luckily I had brought some euro change left over from my last trip.