MOSCOW, October 27. /TASS/. The Lappeenranta Airport in South Finland facing the threat of its complete closing due to absence of Russian tourists will halt operations until the end of this year, the air harbor told TASS.

"The air traffic control tower of the airfield will be closed from October 30 until the end of day on December 31, no landing approach control will be implemented," a spokesperson told TASS. He did not exclude the possibility of one-off flights from the airport but special requests will be needed to be submitted in order to organize them. No information is available thus far about the airport operations in the next year, the spokesperson added.

Earlier reports said that the Lappeenranta Airport may halt operations due to losses caused by absence of Russian tourists. According to Yle public broadcaster data, the airport was fifth in terms of capacity utilization in Finland in 2011. The passenger traffic from Russia declined heavily in 2014 and the situation was aggravated further by the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine.

The airport told TASS later that the air traffic control tower will be closed from October 24 to 28 and the air harbor will operate for four hours on October 29, when a flight from Rhodes is expected.