Is Helsinki airport a good choice in winter?

I think what would also be important would be to compare the convenience of catching the next available flight(s) in case there are cancellations. I'm not sure cancellations are driven by the connecting city more so than other factors (weather at departing city, availability of crew, demand for the flight, etc). Having said that, I'd never connect through Chicago either because most flights depart late out of that airport and weather is always an issue. I've flown through Helsinki before and really liked the airport - it's not overwhelming compared to other European airports. So it's a nice place to hang out if your flight is late. Also, this is totally unrelated, but I believe FinnAir has a free stopover in Helsinki on its flights...that's a good way to pop in and check out the city,

Agnes, that is exactly what I do as well, never connect through ORD. I have never connected through ORD without a delay, and now I just don't use it anymore.

I just wondered whether Helsinki's winter weather would be as big a factor as it is in Chicago or Boston. The two itineraries are almost identical in terms of everything except for the connection location and the type of payment. If it was for summer time I believe either would be fine, but winter. I know they deal with snow very well in the Scandinavia, but if there was a huge whiteout storm there is nothing one can do. BTW, the connection in Helsinki or London would be the only connection of the trip, so no need to worry about catching the next flight if the flight in Helsinki is delayed. The flight out of Helsinki or London is long haul, only one flight per day. If the flight is cancelled, one would need to wait at least one full day for the next flight. And I thought that the Helsinki airport would be a nice one, that is why I really want to choose that itinerary but the weather worries me a little. Should I just go with it?

Is there any way you can look up flight statistics (on time performance, etc) on both itineraries by airline? I know it would be harder to find specifically at winter time. There are just too many variables when it comes to weather, so it's best to ignore it as a key decision point (all other things equal). And if the next flight is the next day for either selection, then I'd go with whichever city you'd like to spend the night in. I would pick Helsinki based purely on a preference for smaller airports.

Thanks Agnes, that makes sense. I will try to find flight statistics for the two and see whether there are differences.

you may want to use this to calculate your total flying distances between you choices and decide how long you want to be on the planes
http://www.gcmap.com/dist?

You might want to read this article:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-12042213

The Nordics handle winter quite well.

Thanks, everyone

Helsinki over London every time. Whilst London doesn't receive as much snow as Helsinki it does not have the infrastructure to cope with bad weather. Heathrow in particular suffers quite badly because it is full to capacity. Problems often arise when the temperatures are low enough to require regular de-icing of all aircraft which significantly impacts departure slots, as a result many airlines, particularly BA because it has the most flights operating, cancel a number of flights in order to allow for the extra time for de-icing.

Helsinki does not have the volume of flights that Heathrow has so airlines have the capacity to allow for de-icing. It often isn't the snow that's the problem but rather the temperatures.

Thanks JC, very good analysis. Looks like everyone here recommends Helsinki. Helsinki it is.

My two winter trips to/from HEL were more or less uneventful. Last trip involved deicing but that only caused a 10 or 15 minute delay on top of a 10 minute late arrival. My connect at CPH was reduced from 55 minutes to about a half hour but CPH was so easy we still had wait time before boarding for an on-time depature back to the States.

Laura's BBC article seemed to be spot on. The Nordics know how to deal with winter. I landed at VCE (Italy) in the middle of a Carnival snow storm. We were on the aircraft for a hour while the Italians pushed snow around trying to clear the snow so that we could be bussed to the terminal. (Snow delayed departures which stayed at gates).

The Nordics know how to deal with winter

It's not so much that the Nordics know how to deal with winter but more to do with airport capacity and expectation. The Nordic countries expect regular heavy snowfall every winter and therefore it makes sense to invest heavily in the infrastructure to deal with it including heating some parts of the runway and parking slots. More southerly countries don't experience regular snow to justify the expense involved in taking a similar approach to Finland for example. It would be akin to Miami International Airport installing heated runways and investing in a fleet of snow ploughs.....just in case! In addition the smaller airports just don't experience the sheer volume of flights that hubs such as Heathrow, CDG or Schipol do, spending an additional ten minutes on de-icing an aircraft has such a huge knock on effect when this is happening with multiple aircraft that the only option is to cancel flights in order to accommodate the extra time.