Santa trouble for British tourists
Hundreds of British tourists will not be able to meet Santa in Rovaniemi, Lapland, this winter as tour operator Nortours has filed for bankruptcy. In Manchester, police were called after angry parents protested when a flight to see Santa was cancelled.
Barents Observer has earlier reported on the popularity of Finland as a place to celebrate Christmas and New Year. This winter hundreds of British tourists will not be able make a much-anticipated trip to Lapland as British tour operator Nortours has filed for bankruptcy, the Finnish news paper Helsingin Sanomat reports.
Nortours had 10 charter flights booked for the season. This Christmas, 520 flights have been booked to Lapland, and 140 of them will land at Kittilä Airport.
- The number of visitors is still at record high levels, albeit that there has been a slight decrease in the number of Brits travelling to Lapland, Kittilä Airport Manager Kari Tohmo says. In 2004, 550 charter flights transported over 140,000 tourists to Lapland, mainly from Britain.
In Manchester, the police were called after angry parents protested when a flight to see Santa was cancelled, Daily Mail reports. The problems began at Manchester Airport at 5am as excited children together with their parents and grandparents arrived for two scheduled flights. Tensions began to mount when they were told there would be a delay because tour operator Transun had decided to cancel the aircraft in favour of one larger one. However, the grumbles turned to fury when, after almost four hours, they were told the tour had been cancelled because the pilot was refusing to fly the aircraft. To make matters worse no one from Transun, nor the airline operator, the French-based Blue airline, was available to tell passengers what was going on. Calm was only restored after the arrival of the police, who escorted passengers from the airport.
Christmas flights employ thousands of Finns every year. Hotels, restaurants, and companies providing services such as snowmobile safaris and dog-sled trekking all benefit from the Yuletide high season. The first Christmas charter flight landed at Kittilä Airport on 24th November this year.
BarentsObserver wishes all readers a Merry Christmas!
Follow Santa’s journey with NORAD
