152 TOURISM LAW IN EUROPE 3. TRANSPORTATION Finland has a well-maintained transportation infrastructure connecting the cities and towns making it easy to access different parts of the country whether one was traveling by road, rail, air, or waterways. Different methods of transportation are regulated through the Act on Transport Services6, which for the first time combined all the regulations regarding the transport of goods and passengers under one single act. While the Ministry of Transport and Communications is responsible for the drafting of all legislation related to different transportation modes in Finland, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency oversees all the licensing and that the actors comply with the regulations in place. 3.1. Air Due to the long distance between northern Lapland and the densely populated cities in the southern Finland, domestic air travel is essential part of the transportation infrastructure. Majority of the Finland’s airports are managed and operated by the state-owned company Finavia Oyj. Domestic air traffic used to be operated only by national airline Finnair Oyj and its partner Nordic Regional Airlines, but nowadays budget airlines like Norwegian AS fly regularly from Helsinki to Lapland. International flights are mostly operated from the airports of Helsinki-Vantaa, Turku, Oulu and Tampere, with charter flights from Europe transporting travellers straight to Lapland during the Christmas season. Air travel is often the only convenient way to travel to Finland due to its location in the northeast corner of Europe with a coastline over double the length of land borders. Domestic air traffic is regulated in chapters 13 and 14 of the Act on Transport Services. Operating international flights requires additional permits from the countries where those flights are bound to besides the national air traffic license. 6 Laki liikenteen palveluista (24.5.2017/320)
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