Helsinki Vantaa International Airport is a very small airport and if you’re flying within the Schengen area, your lounge options are fairly limited. For Finnair and its oneworld partners, Finnair operates a beautiful lounge adjacent to gate 22. And for the rest of us, there’s the Aspire Lounge, located next to gate 27.
The Aspire Lounge is the contract lounge for the other airlines that fly to Helsinki including Air France, KLM, Lufthansa and others. It’s located in the Schengen area but you can also use it if you’re departing on a non-Schengen flight. Just make sure to save at least 15 minutes to clear passport control. The Aspire Lounge is also a Priority Pass partner lounge but entry is limited to three hours prior to your flight and is subject to space availability constraints. The lounge is open from 5:00 AM to 9:00 daily and children under the age of two are permitted free of charge.
The lounge is small but it’s actually bigger than one would expect. The main seating area of the lounge is located in the center, directly after the check-in desk. Here, you’ll find a variety of seating options from individual pods to table seating for multiple people.
The large windows bring in plenty of natural lighting and they provide great views of the ramp and runway below.
If you continue walking back toward the end of the lounge, you’ll find another small seating area that’s pretty quiet and secluded from the rest of the lounge.
And in the front of the lounge, you’ll find another small seating area with couches and work benches.
There’s also a small upstairs area with additional seating that most people won’t know about.
Food-wise, I was here twice and got to experience both breakfast and lunch. For breakfast, there was a very limited selection of cold cuts, breads, yogurt and oatmeal (but no toppings such as brown sugar, nuts or dried berries). And for lunch, there was a more substantial spread of hot cauliflower soup, which was very delicious, cold pastas and cold cuts.
For drinks, there was a small selection of spirits, wines and a Finnish beer on tap.
European electrical outlets were available in most of the seating areas and password-protected WiFi was provided throughout the lounge.
Aspire Lounge Helsinki Airport Bottom Line
Overall, I would say this is a decent lounge for Priority Pass passengers but not a great lounge for business class passengers. The lounge offers a decent offering of food and drinks at lunchtime (breakfast was a little lacking), plenty of comfortable seating and nice views of the ramp and runway below but it is lacking in amenities expected of a true business-class lounge.
What are your thoughts? Have you visited the Aspire Lounge Helsinki Airport? If so, please share your thoughts with us in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!
The other related posts are:
- oneworld Lounge LAX
- Air France Boeing 777-300ER Business Class, Los Angeles to Paris
- KLM Boeing 787-10 Business Class, Los Angeles to Amsterdam
- VR Santa Claus Express Train, Helsinki to Rovaniemi
- Santa Claus Holiday Village
- Aspire Lounge Helsinki Airport, a Priority Pass Lounge
- KLM Boeing 737 Business Class, Helsinki to Amsterdam
- KLM Crown Lounge Amsterdam
- KLM Boeing 787-10 Business Class, Amsterdam to Los Angeles
- Condor A330-900neo Premium Economy, Frankfurt to San Fransico
