According to the 2018 audited annual accounts of Tallinn Airport, the company improved also all other key financial indicators besides profit. The sales revenue of the airport grew by 9%, amounting to EUR 43.8 million and EBITDA by 8%, reaching EUR 15.1 million year-on-year. The net profit of the company increased nearly 16%, amounting to EUR 7.5 million compared to last year.
According to Piret Mürk-Dubout, Chairman of the Management Board at Tallinn Airport, connections by air are the key to the development of the economy of a state. “Direct flights have great impact on foreign investments, commercial ties of states and export of services, tourism and productivity. Air transport gives access to new markets, enables to benefit more from economies of scale and recruit excellent labour force. The airport team is working hard every day to open up possibilities for travelling from Tallinn to the main destinations in Europe with reasonable frequency and time cost,” Mürk-Dubout said. “The airport aims at developing further our main aerial gateway, connect Estonia even better with Europe and reach 5 million passengers over the next ten years.”
In summer 2018, the number of direct destinations of Tallinn Airport increased to a record number of 41, to which more than 90 charter flight destinations were added. Scheduled flights on all-the-year-round routes were opened to Malta, Cyprus and Edinburgh – there are altogether 27 all-the-year-round destinations. This year, the focus is also on connections with Middle East.
There are 16 airlines operating at the Tallinn Airport. The most recent of them, offering regular flights, is Wizz Air, who in 2018 began to fly from Tallinn to Kiev and London. While 2018 brought new destinations for Tallinn Airport, the plans for 2019 include focusing on increasing the frequency of the existing routes, in order to match the routes more especially with the needs of business travellers.
Over the last two years, the number of passengers has increased more than 30% overall (in 2017: 19% and 2018; 13.6%). The year 2018 once again brought a record number of passengers – on the last day of the year, the number of passengers exceeded the record level of 3 million, making an average of 8,200 passengers and 60 flights a day. For 2019, Tallinn Airport predicts a nearly 7% increase in the number of passengers.
Aggregated volume of passengers increased also in regional airports and we may expect even higher demand at both, the Kuressaare as well as Tartu airport in the near future. Regional airports served altogether 61,507 passengers in 2018, while in 2017, the figure was 60,878. Compared to 2017, the number of passengers increased at the airports of Kuressaare (2018: 23,166, 2017: 19,231), Kärdla (2018: 9,943, 2017: 9,170), Pärnu (2018: 920, 2017: 856), Ruhnu (2018: 1,345, 2017: 1,329) and Kihnu (2018: 41, 2017: 0) The respective figure of Tartu airport decreased by 4,200 passengers (2018: 30,292, 2017: 26,092).
The investment volume of the group was EUR 19.3 million in 2018 with biggest investments being the construction of the parking station and expansion of the airside area of Tallinn Airport towards the East and South. In 2019, the group plans to invest another EUR 33.7 million. The main projects are stage II of the airside area development project of Tallinn Airport with estimated cost of EUR 35 million; development of the passenger terminal and apron areas of the Tallinn Airport, started in 2018. By 2018, the capacity of passenger terminal at the Tallinn Airport in critical junctures had exceeded the planned capacity. We have launched the expansion project of passenger terminal, the draft plan of which together with the business plan will be completed in spring 2019. We have planned EUR 16.7 million for the design and construction of the passenger terminal expansion in stage I; reconstruction of Pärnu airport in 2018-2020. The total project cost is EUR 20 million.
In 2018, the Airports Council International Europe (ACI Europe) awarded Tallinn Airport the title of the best airport in the category of airports with less than 5 million passengers. In the global airport passengers’ survey, conducted by ACI, the Tallinn Airport was placed third in the list of 111 comparable airports of Europe.
