Finland’s Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) this morning published a series of NOTAMs creating ad-hoc restricted and danger airspace across the Helsinki Flight Information Region for 7 October 2026. The most prominent is Restricted Area EFR1851, active from 09:00 to 18:00 local time over coordinates 66°29ʹ59ʺ N 25°42ʹ54ʺ E with a 3-km radius, limiting operations exclusively to authorised unmanned-aircraft (UAV) flights up to 4 000 ft AMSL. In parallel, the military has activated multiple firing and flare zones—including EFD161 Kyläjärvi and EFR99A Lohtaja—between 03:00 and 21:00 UTC as part of autumn live-fire exercises. Pilots operating general aviation or business-jet flights have been instructed to file flight plans that avoid the affected coordinates or to request tactical reroutes from air-traffic control. Drone operators are particularly impacted: commercial UAV flights, often used for surveying, infrastructure inspection and media work, are prohibited inside EFR1851 for the duration of the activation. The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) warned that violations may lead to administrative penalties and potential criminal liability under the Aviation Act. For mobility planners the restrictions underscore the importance of pre-flight briefing in Finland’s increasingly dynamic airspace environment, which now blends civil traffic recovery with intensified defence training following Finland’s NATO accession. Companies with time-sensitive cargo charters or aerial-work operations today should verify routings and build contingency buffers into schedules.
Source: AIS Finland
