Plenty of comparisons with Helsinki going around.
One that needs more emphasis is that Helsinki Vantaa is seen as a key strategic part of the national infrastructure, treated by the government and its operator in these terms. In comparison Heathrow was allowed by the Department for Transport to be flogged off to Spanish investors without any consideration for how their extreme economies and squeezes on cost would affect the UK's transport, or the overall economy.
Heathrow has two runways, Helsinki has three, one of recent build. In a country of high environmental awareness there was no pandering to the Greens on building that. When it's snowing when I am there they always manage to keep two operational while ploughing the third, then they switch round.
This morning the current UK Transport Secretary Philip Hammond (MP for Weybridge, prime Hacan territory of course) gave his usual bumbling, um-ah-er, type of TV interview about the new railway from London to Birmingham, stating that there was a need to "anticipate increases in demand, the present railway will soon be full up, and provide for resilience of the future transport network for the sake of the UK economy". And so 120 miles of countryside will be dug up.
This is a curious contrast. Go by train today from Euston to Birmingham and you will see several First Class coaches with about half a dozen passengers in each one, not surprising when the fares for this are higher than BA charged me last time from London to New York (yes, really), meanwhile Heathrow is already beyond capacity on the runways, and has been for years, yet no third runway for them, and it is allowed to be sold to the chancers from Madrid. Why is resilience important at the DfT on one railway route in Britain, but not for the premier airport of the country ?
Separately, who was the BAA buffoon on BBC news this morning who said aircraft de-icer was ineffective below -10 ? Do they think aviation in Helsinki and much of Russia shuts down for three months in the winter ? How do they think the BA A320 which overnights in Helsinki each day ( -21 tonight) manages to get away on time right through the winter ?