Airport Hub project expert Elisabet Kivimäki is creating important contacts for the future of Seinäjoki Airport. "Dronamics, the developer of unmanned cargo transport, hopes to have a drone base at Seinäjoki Airport," says Kivimäki.
Rural airports on the wane? At least not in Seinäjoki, because an innovative new type of digital aviation activity is emerging at Seinäjoki Airport in Pojanluoma in the next few years.
- Seinäjoki Airport has the conditions to grow into a cargo logistics center, says an expert on the Airport Hub project Elisabet Kivimäki.
The regional center Seinäjoki is located at an important crossing point for rail transport and is also centrally located for road transport between Southern and Northern Finland. Currently, two airlines and an active aviation club operate at Seinäjoki Airport. The hospital district of South Ostrobothnia uses the airport infrastructure for ambulance and organ transplant flights.
The preservation and development of Seinäjoki Airport is seen as important for the municipalities, companies and other actors in the region. In the spring of 2021, a total of 180 companies signed a petition in favor of securing the future of Seinäjoki Airport, asking for state operating support for the airport.
- In the Airport Hub cooperation project, we aim to find new and innovative operating methods for rural airports, as well as to increase, for example, business opportunities for local entrepreneurs that make use of the nearby airport.
There is a constant need for the development of rural airports, as passenger and cargo traffic is predicted to even double from China to Europe by 2037. In addition to this, climate change forces aviation to develop more ecological ways of traveling and moving from one place to another.
Drone transport from Seinäjoki to Europe and back
Dronamics, the world's leading developer of unmanned cargo transport, contacted us two years ago and expressed its interest in Seinäjoki Airport as an air base.
- Seinäjoki has a contract to build a base station and it will be built about 3 months before the start of flight operations. In this case, Seinäjoki Airport would become our country's first drone base and the logistics center of Finnish online shopping. This, in turn, would open enormous new opportunities for companies and educational institutions in the region, without forgetting the country's internal and international networks and cooperation patterns. We can be pioneers in the entire logistics chain.
The goal of Dronamics is to create a cargo drone network operating in Europe. Dronamics would meet a wide range of needs: drones could transport e.g. e-commerce orders, spare parts, drug shipments and even laboratory samples effortlessly to the other side of Europe within the same day. Drones traveling between countries could transport a maximum of 350 kilograms of cargo.
- Our vision is that after Dronamics flights start, first mail and last mail transports would be integrated into the currently existing forms of transport. Larger transports would be moved between countries by drones, from which smaller transports could be delivered, for example, by vans all the way to the front door.
The possibilities offered by drones have attracted the interest of companies in the region as well as educational institutions. Events have been organized for companies in the area, where Dronamics has been talking about its goals and the opportunities brought by the drone base.
- The first event was attended by around 70 actors or companies from the area and the discussion was extremely active.
There is a discussion about the development of logistics education with educational institutions in the region, such as SeAMK and Sedu. The learning units also open opportunities to export education abroad, for example to China.
- It is important that education programs are able to prepare and offer education for future needs. In the future, logistics students could be offered different types of drone training, such as maintenance and flight studies, says Kivimäki.
Seinäjoki Airport is of interest to international partners
In September 2021, Seinäjoki was visited by partners from Tartu, Estonia. In Tartu, the project's partner is the local Leader group, which is also developing a rural airport in its area. During the visit, we got to know, among other things, the operation of Dronamics and Sedu's logistics training at the airport. The main goal of the international meeting is to create contacts for the future.
- Along with drone development, there is a need for business connections, so that by the time the Dronamics flights start, contacts have already been established.
Due to the corona, Dronamics flights were delayed. However, it is expected that the flights will be able to start already within two years.
Partners from Tartu at the meeting organized at Seinäjoki Airport on 16 September 2021.
Into Seinäjoki is involved in a European cooperation project, which plans a road map for the ecological future of rural airports and the activation of rural airports. In addition to Seinäjoki Airport, the Airport Hub project has rural airports from Estonia, Slovenia, Italy and Greece as partners.