The Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air has announced to start flying three times a week on the Tallinn-Lviv and Tallinn-Harkiv routes from 2 July.
Wizz Air announced today the opening of two new routes to Tallinn and the tickets are already on sale on the airline’s homepage. Wizz Air has told already before that they intend to continue flying from mid-May also to Kiev and from the beginning of June, to Kutaisi. The exact date of starting the flights will be clear soon.
“This is great news given the current situation, which shows that the airlines are willing to return to their routes and believe in the recovery of Estonian market. The Ukraine is a big and growing market and new destinations will open up new possibilities for us in business as well as tourism. Naturally, we must consider the termination of emergency situations, opening up of state borders and recommendations of countries for travelling, when opening new routes, but things are beginning to move and we believe in the gradual recovery of flights,” said Eero Pärgmäe, the Commercial Director of Tallinn Airport.
The Estonian Ambassador to the Ukraine, Kaimo Kuusk, was happy about the new destinations in the fast-developing Ukraine. “The Ukraine has coped really well with controlling the COVID-19 virus. The situation was taken seriously, restrictions were imposed in good time and even more extensively than in Estonia and this prevented the explosive spread of the pandemic. I believe that in May the Ukraine will start opening itself again,” Kuusk admitted.
When characterising the new destinations, Kuusk only has positive comments: “Lviv is a magnificent city in the western Ukraine, reminding me a mix of Riga and Vienna. This can be explained by the historical influence of Austria-Hungary. The city has history, beautiful architecture, splendid restaurants and concert venues. When walking in the old town, you are accompanied by the smell of freshly ground coffee. Just like Lviv, also Harkiv is a university city. Think about Tartu, then multiply it with the scale of Ukraine and add a pinch or three of Slavic nature. Harkiv has a really fast-developing IT-sector, which is of great interest to the European companies and academic institutions of the field. Estonia cooperates with the Ukraine in the IT-area and not only to teach someone, but also, to the make another leap in development together with the Ukrainians.
The route development team of the Tallinn Airport cooperates on a daily basis with airlines and ministries to restore the air traffic as soon as possible. Restoring of the air traffic is seen in two stages. “In the first stage, it is important to restore connections that are important for the economy, to get the routes with important European business centres up and running and offer also convenient connecting transfer possibilities. The second stage is related to restoring the holiday travel destinations, to offer people the possibilities of travel and thereby promote also the rise of our accommodation and catering establishments. Today we believe that recovery will not be fast and we will reach the volumes of 2019 only in 2022,” Pärgmäe added.
At the present, it is possible to take a scheduled flight from the Tallinn Airport three times a week to Frankfurt with Lufthansa and Minsk with Belavia. In April, Finnair restored its Tallinn-Helsinki route, starting with once a week and in the coming weeks the number of flights is expected to increase on the route.
One of the most important goals of Tallinn Airport is to offer international connections which support the development of the state’s entrepreneurship and tourism.
