Helsinki FIR issues short-notice NOTAMs restricting airspace 13–17 July for UAV military exercises

Finland’s Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) published several NOTAMs early on 13 July establishing temporary danger areas (TDAs) across the Helsinki Flight Information Region (FIR) from 13 to 17 July. The primary notice—A3603/26—activates restricted blocks of airspace from the surface up to 3 300 feet AMSL daily between 08:00 and 19:00 EEST on 13 July, with varying schedules on subsequent days. Additional NOTAM A3607/26 sets lower-level restrictions through 13 July 13:00. The Finnish Defence Forces confirmed that the closures support live-fly unmanned-air-vehicle (UAV) training linked to the ongoing RARE 26 exercise. Although the vertical limits are modest, the affected zones sit beneath several standard instrument departure and arrival routes for Helsinki-Vantaa (HEL) and Tampere-Pirkkala (TMP) airports. Business-aviation operators and helicopter charter firms—particularly those flying aerial survey, power-line patrols or inter-site shuttles—will need to file rerouted flight plans through the Airspace Management Cell (AMC) or obtain tactical clearances on the day. Finnair and other scheduled carriers are not expected to cancel flights, but minor in-air holding or slightly longer routings could add a few minutes of block time. Cargo carriers with night-time slots should note that some restrictions extend past midnight UTC. The exercise underscores the growing frequency of UAV and military training activity over southern Finland. Mobility managers should add NOTAM monitoring to their pre-trip checklists—particularly for ad-hoc private flights—and advise executives to allow buffer time when connecting at HEL. The AMC has set up a dedicated hotline (+358 299 442 900) for flight-planning queries during the exercise window. Normal airspace configuration is scheduled to resume at 09:00 local time on 17 July.