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Old 20th Dec 2008, 21:18
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Capvermell
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Enontekio is at 68 degrees North and deep inside the Arctic Circle and the thick snow and ice whilst Rovaniemi is at 66 degrees North and right on the edge of the Arctic Circle (in fact I know that the Arctic Circle runs right through Santa Claus village just to the north of Rovaniemi having been there myself in the mid summer).

But the bigger difference is that the runway length at Rovaniemi (supporting a substantial town) is 9842 feet (see Rovaniemi Airport (RVN) Details - Finland) while the quoted runway length at Enontekio at Enontekio Airport (ENF) Details - Finland is 2625 feet. On that basis I don't see how either of these aircraft can safely land or even more take off at Enontekio even with only passengers with hand luggage on board. Somewhere like Skiathos with a runway length of 5,200 feet cannot let a fully laden A319 make the 3 hour flight to London Gatwick without a refuelling stop at Thessaloniki and London City at 4948 feet had to be specially cleared to be allowed to accept the very small A318.

So is the runway length at Enontekio extended by a snow and ice surface in the winter or is the airport codes database simply incorrect and is it now 5,000+ feet in length after a tarmac/concrete runway extension?

I have an interest in this part of the world having driven all the way to the top of Norway at the Nordkap in 2004 in my MR2 Roadster and then back down through Finland and therefore I have some idea how truly remote and desolate somewhere like Enontekio is, especially at this time of year. God help you if there is ever a crash there is all I can say as the hospital facilities cannot be good with a local Sami population of only 2,000. On the other hand it clearly is the real lapland, much more so than Rovaniemi is.
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