Tallinn Airport Handles Over 1 Million Passengers in First Half
Passenger numbers at Tallinn Airport exceeded the 1-million mark during the January to June period, a first for the institution.
A total of 1.06 million travelers passed through the airport during the first half of 2012, a 21.4 percent increase from the same period of last year.
The most popular destinations for regular flights out of Tallinn were Helsinki, Stockholm and Riga, the airport said in a statement. For charter flights, the resort cities of Antalya, Hurghada and Sharm el Sheikh topped the list.
In the statement, airport representative Lauri Linnamäe said that the facilities were operating near full capacity, creating the risk of problems should glitches occur during peak times. A new terminal scheduled to open in 2014 should relieve the problem, he said.
So far this year, the national carrier Estonian Air has accounted for 40.1 percent of flights served by the airport, followed by Ryanair at 16.2 percent. Last year's equivalent figures were 31 percent and 19 percent, respectively.
In 2011, passenger numbers at the airport totaled 1.9 million.
Steve Roman