13.8 ℃

The increase in the number of passengers at Tallinn Airport reflects the recovery of tourism

03.09.2021

In August, 176,652 passengers travelled through Tallinn Airport, being the highest monthly number of passengers served over the last year and a half. The number of passengers has grown more than twice compared to last August; yet, it makes only 54% of the pre-pandemic times.

According to Eero Pärgmäe, the Commercial Director of Tallinn Airport, the continued increase in the number of passengers and average seat occupancy of flights are signs that the passengers have become accustomed to the new travel arrangements and restrictions and are returning to flying. “In August, the average seat occupancy on flights was already 72%, which is a very good result and for charter flights, the figure is even higher. Today we can see that the airlines are approaching the winter season flight schedules more boldly than last year, bringing new routes to the market and increasing also the frequencies of the existing routes,” said Pärgmäe, adding that both, airlines and airports have gained more flexibility with the crisis; yet, the planning cycles have become much shorter than before. “The passengers also plan their trips less in advance and are more spontaneous in their decisions. The flight schedules of the winter season, beginning at the end of October, should be finalised by mid-September – so, those who have still not planned their autumn and winter travel, should start examining the destinations and reserving tickets”.

According to Pärgmäe, the biggest recognition for the airport is still high passenger satisfaction. “In August, we received the Q2 results of the ACI Airport Service Quality (ASQ) passenger survey, according to which we are in the strong fourth place at the European level with the Q2 score of 4.58 in terms of overall satisfaction. I am pleased to be at such a high level, given that a total of 87 airports in the European region took part in the survey.”

In August, connection was restored on the Tallinn-Vilnius route (AirBaltic) and in total, there were scheduled flights to 28 different destinations. A large part of the regular traffic was distributed between the main hubs, such as Helsinki, Riga, Frankfurt and Stockholm. The most popular among charter flights were the destinations of Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece, but also flights to Montenegro and Georgia.

In August, altogether 2820 flight operations were carried out, an average of 91 landings and takeoffs per day.

In eight months, 618,918 passengers have passed the airport and 15,207 flight operations have been carried out. More than a half of this year’s passengers have been served during the last two months.