Hi and welcome to HT!

It will depend who you are thinking of booking with, but most scheduled airlines, as opposed to low cost airlines, release their flights 330 days before travel.

luci

lozkin,

Welcome onboard
I'm off to to Yllas in December, flying in to Katilla with Thomsonfly. We booked in January 2008 so expect flights to start becoming available from mid-January 2009 as Luci mentions.

Darren

Thanks very much for your reply....I think I will be travelling with Finn Air or Blue 1, so I will keep my eye out on their website for when the flights come available....if I book very early will I get cheaper tickets (like with Virgin Trains!) or doesnt it work like that with airlines?

lozkin,

It doesn't necassarily work like that with airlines. The airlines you mention are full fare scheduled operators (Finnair at least). Their fares are normally high to begin with but will fluctuate depending on demand. Because it's a business route (you are presumably thinking of going via Helsinki?), prices can stay high. It's the low cost carriers such as Ryanair and Easyjet where the cheap tickets are available well in advance. Rather than going via Helsinki, would it not be easier trying one of the charter operators such as Thomsonfly (Thomson Airways by then) who will offer direct flights to Lapland flying in to Katilla for example?

Darren

Thanks Darren, I will look into that....We are stopping in Rovaniemi, so the plan was to fly to Helsinki then on to Rovaniemi. I noticed Easyjet fly to Helsinki from Gatwick, but they only seem to have their flights 3 or 4 months in advance....I dont think there are any other budget airlines that fly to Helsinki from the UK??

I will look into the direct flight to Katilla....not sure how far away that is from Rovaniemi though!!

Wow, I have just looked into flying to Kittila, and this is a much better option! I can fly direct from Birmingham and then maybe hire a car and have a 2 hour drive to Rovaniemi rather than drive to Gatwick, fly to Helsinki, hang around for a couple of hours, then fly to Rovaniemi, and the prices seem to be much cheaper...£450 ish for a family of 3, whereas I was looking in excess of £1000 through Finn Air

Thanks very much

glad you're sorted. That's why we're flying in to Katilla in December and have a car hired for the week (not bad prices are car hire either, catagory D for about £210 including everything). It's far cheaper and much simpler flying direct.

Darren

Thanks Darren....did you book direct with Thomsonfly, as I have been on their website and cant seem to find much information about flights to Kittila....I google searched and came up with a site called charteredflights.co.uk which had lots of flights, even some for December 09, but ideally I would like to book direct though the airline.

Thanks for your help!

lozkin,

I booked through Crystal Ski (part of TUI / Thomson). They don't do flight only but most of the flights to Kattila are chartered so you'll have to go through an agent or direct with the airline once they release them. You should be ok booking through one of the reputable agents.

Darren

Thanks, you've been very helpful!