Maritime traffic services

Fintraffic's Vessel Traffic Services provide a vessel traffic service and maintain a maritime safety radio broadcast service. We inform vessels of other traffic in the area and any other issues that may affect their passage, such as weather conditions, ice or safety equipment failures. We also control traffic and provide navigational assistance where necessary.

Two Vessel Traffic Service Centres – which are a part of Fintraffic’s Vessel Traffic Services – are responsible for providing vessel traffic service (VTS) in Finland. Our centres monitor an area that encompasses all coastal merchant shipping lanes and the Saimaa deep fairway. Additionally, Helsinki Traffic, which operates in the vessel traffic service centre of the Gulf of Finland, oversees the international sea area of the Gulf of Finland together with Russia and Estonia.

Vessel traffic service

Vessels of 24 metres in length overall or more are obliged to participate in the vessel traffic service. When navigating in the VTS area, vessels are required to maintain a continuous listening watch on the working channel used in the area.

Master's Guide

When navigating in the VTS area, vessels are required to maintain a continuous listening watch on the working channel used in the area and obliged to obey the traffic rules in the VTS area. More detailed VTS area-specific instructions can be found here.

Find your guide

Safety radio

Turku Radio is responsible for safety broadcasts along the Finnish coast, including navigational warnings, maritime weather forecasts and ice reports. During winter, Turku Radio also broadcasts the vessel and route information of behalf of the icebreakers. Turku Radio is operated by Fintraffic's VTS centre, which is on duty on the channels around the clock.

See channel details

Monitoring international waters

Helsinki Traffic, which operates in the Gulf of Finland VTS Centre, oversees the international sea area of the Gulf of Finland together with Russia and Estonia. The jointly established GOFREP ship reporting system covers the entire Gulf of Finland, excluding national VTS areas. Traffic in the South Åland Sea TSS is monitored by Åland Sea Traffic at the Western Finland VTS Centre.

Radio navigation services

Safe navigation in Finland’s waterways has been ensured by adequate visual marking and targeted radio navigation services. To aid the vessels’ radar navigation, radar reflectors and/or racons have often been installed in traditional aids to navigation. Fintraffic's Vessel Traffic Services provide a DGNSS service in accordance with international standards to aid satellite navigation.

See position information