Airport, Estonia, Good for Business, Tourism, Transport

The expected decrease in passenger numbers is also primarily related to the national air company.

The biggest priority of Tallinn Airport this year is route development. The airport is constantly negotiating with about a few dozen airlines, but as a rule it takes at least a year between an agreement and the first flight.

"All the negotiations are in different stages, each with its own challenges. It does not show but we are completely committed to securing new connections. I hope that people will understand that there are no fast results; each new route is the result of years of work," Erik Sakkov, Member of the Management Board of Tallinn Airport, admitted.

The number of summer cruise turnaround passengers serviced at Tallinn Airport increased more than two-fold as compared to the previous year.

In five weekends, the airport and its partners catered Spanish cruise line operator Pullmantur, in which thousands of Spanish tourists arrived in Tallinn in giant Boeing 747 Pullmantur aircraft to begin their Baltic Sea cruises from Tallinn, as the Airport of Tallinn said in a statement.

The same planes then turned around and took a boat load of tourists back to Spain who had finished their Baltic Sea cruise in Tallinn.

Another major highlight of the 76th year of the airport – the year 2012, the international aviation forum Routes Europe, brought about 900 top experts from the European aviation sector and beyond to Estonia.

The organization of Routes Europe gave the airport a unique opportunity to introduce Tallinn and Estonia to airline and airport route developers as an attractive destination. As early as the first day of the forum, Turkish Airlines announced that it would begin to operate flights on the Istanbul-Tallinn route. It was a huge effort by the airport, requiring the hard work of both the top management and each customer attendant, but European aviation’s elite was excited over the event and with Estonia. The airport expects to see direct results in the form of new connections in the coming years.