Transport

Last year, the Tallinn Airport was used by 1.34 million passengers. 41% of those were transported by Estonian Air. A few years ago, the share of passengers flying with the Estonian national carrier was nearly 46%. In five years, this indicator has fallen slightly from year to year.

"'Estonian Air' has in the past few years focussed on developing its regular flights and less on chartered flights," commented Deputy President in charge of commerce Rauno Parras. "Hence, the fall in the overall market share has come from the significant fall in the share in charter flights and also from the changes on the market after some carriers have left Tallinn".

Parras criticised airBaltic and Czech Airlines, noting that one possible option for quickly increasing the market share is to stimulate demand by offering prices that are lower than the average.

"In addition to that, some airlines have increasingly opted for the strategy of luring customers from neighbouring markets to fly to their desired destinations via the airline's home base at much lower prices than offered for direct flights from the said home base in order to increase the number of passengers," he remarked.

Parras added that certain shifts in the market positions will probably continue during the coming periods, but there are also customers who prefer good level of services, convenience and speed to low prices and vice versa.