--- title: "Helsinki Airport Filled With Russians’ Luxury Vehicles as Tourists Get Around Flight Ban" description: "Russian tourists are getting around the EU's air travel ban on Russia by driving into Finland and flying from Helsinki airport." date: "2022-08-28" modified: "2022-08-28" authors: - name: "Nico DeMattia" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/nico-demattia" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/helsinki-airport-filled-with-russians-luxury-vehicles-as-tourists-get-around-flight-ban" categories: - "Culture" - "News" tags: - "911" - "russia" --- # Helsinki Airport Filled With Russians’ Luxury Vehicles as Tourists Get Around Flight Ban ![]() *Photo | Alessandro Rampozzo/AFP via Getty Images* After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the European Union closed its airspace to Russian planes. However, since then Russians have been getting around that by first driving into Finland, parking at Helsinki airport, and flying from there. Which is why Helsinki airport's parking garage is currently filled with high-end cars—Porsche 911s, Range Rovers, and Mercedes G-Wagons—wearing Russian license plates. The surge in Russian travelers flying from Finland came after Russia lifted its Covid travel restrictions on July 15 and, according to [*AFP*](), there were said to be 230,000 border crossings in July alone. "Helsinki airport is seeing a lot of Russian tourism at the moment." Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told *AFP*. ![]() *Photo | Alessandro Rampozzo/AFP via Getty Images* How are Russians allowed to drive into Finland if they aren't allowed to fly into Europe? They use what's called a [Schengen visa](), which permits any carrier to travel freely throughout most European Union countries. There are limitations to how long Schengen visa holders can stay in other countries (90 days in a 180 day period) but it does allow its holders to use international airports. What's frustrating to some Finnish citizens is that the Russian travelers were issued Schengen visas by countries other than Finland, such as Italy, Hungary, Spain, and Greece. And according to Schengen rules, Finland cannot close its borders to any specific nationalities. However, Finland wants to prevent the use of the Schengen visa for this very reason. "As Finland and the Baltic countries are planning to restrict these visas, it would be good if all EU countries took similar decisions," Haavisto said. ![]() *Photo | Alessandro Rampozzo/AFP via Getty Images* There's a meeting of European Union Foreign Affairs on August 30 and Finland wants to raise this issue to the rest of the EU's foreign ministers. The European Union acknowledges that there's an issue with these visas allowing Russian travelers over the Finish border and will attempt to create some sort of policy to help. However, other EU countries understand that most Russians aren't traveling to Finland, or anywhere else, with bad intent. In fact, many are trying to escape. "This is not the Russian people's war, it is Putin's war," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. He said that putting a blanket limit on all Russian Schengen visas would prevent "all the people who flee Russia because they disagree with the Russian regime". This is a tricky diplomatic situation. Finland isn't comfortable with Russians finding a travel-ban loophole by crossing over and using its airports to travel internationally. But the European Union acknowledges that it's necessary for many Russian people to flee Putin's reign. All of EU's foreign minsters will try and figure out a solution to this in a couple of days but, until then, expect to see many more Russian luxury cars parked at Helsinki airport. ## Author Nico is a writer and reviewer from New Jersey who probably thinks he’s a lot funnier than he actually is. His love of cars began when he was just a kid playing Gran Turismo 3, grinding out enough race wins with a Mazda Miata to save up for an in-game RUF 911. That passion for small, lightweight sports cars drove his desire to learn more about the industry, get his hands on as many cars as he could, and bring those experiences to life on the page. He cut his teeth writing about BMWs, Volkswagens, and Audis, mostly, and has owned far too many of each. He’s on his fourth 3 Series sedan, but all of his old, cheap German cars have forced him to learn more about car maintenance than his mechanical capability can handle. Too many late nights have been spent scrambling to get a car running by morning so he could get to work. For some reason, he never seems to learn that old Bimmers probably aren’t the best daily drivers. But he loves more than just old German cars. He’ll gladly drive and discuss anything with four (or even three) wheels. Cars aren’t his only passions, though. Nico is also a big nerd and loves movies, video games, comic books, and cares far too much about the New York Giants. So don’t be surprised if you see football references or dumb, obscure movie quotes in any of his car reviews. ### Author social links [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()