History of the company up to today

Following the end of the Continuation War, son of a farmer from Tervola, Oiva Ilmari Niemelä (1916–2001) started his career as an entrepreneur using a single truck.

The Malmi bus company was purchased by Oiva in 1951, who then initiated bus services between Rovaniemi and Sodankylä.

The service later expanded to Ivalo – a service that is still running today.
Oiva’s wife Helga worked in the company from the very beginning up until her passing away in 1994. She energetically took care of the company’s office tasks and even the logistics when Oiva was out driving. Helga was well liked and respected among the drivers.

Oiva also worked as an earthmoving entrepreneur in the 1950s and 60s.

Oiva started charter services in the late 1950s. In the beginning, the trips were mainly to the Lapland region, but already back in the 1960s Oiva started services to Central Europe on a number of consecutive summers. The trips took two to three weeks, making cities such as Paris, Rome and London very familiar places for Oiva.

Since then the Niemelä green charter buses have become well-known in Finland, Lapland and the entire North Calotte region for carrying Finnish and foreign passengers. In the summertime, the bus tours took people on trips lasting a number of days to the ruggedly handsome landscapes of North Norway. Passengers were mainly people from Europe and the Far East. In the wintertime, Lapland, Rovaniemi and its surroundings have been the most important traffic areas for a number of years.

From 1981 to 2024, Oiva’s son Esko Niemelä served as the CEO and entrepreneur of the company. Growing up around cars, Esko found his career path naturally and proudly continued the operation of the over 70-year-old company.

In 2024, Esko Niemelä sold the business of Liikenne O. Niemelä to Lapland Safaris Group Oy, the largest DMC and program service group in the Nordic countries. The sale was a natural continuation of the story, as Lapland Safaris was the most well-known and one of the oldest program service companies in Lapland, and the cooperation between the companies had continued for over 10 years. Now, Liikenne O. Niemelä can serve its customers even more comprehensively.

Currently, the company has 18 modern charter buses and employs over 20 bus industry professionals.