Tallinn Airport Could Become Major Hub, Says Expert
Shashank Nigam, executive director of the air travel consultancy SimplyFlying, has said that Tallinn Airport has the potential to become a major international transit hub.
In an interview with ETV, Nigam said despite the small size of the city, it is well positioned to become a connection point to a large number of countries.
"The possibilities are huge. You look at Amsterdam, the population is just 600,000, but it's one of the biggest hubs," he said, noting other examples such as Frankfurt, Singapore and Hong Kong where the situation is similar.
"These are really small cities with really small home populations, but the airlines created a network structure so that the airports in themselves are big hubs and bring a lot of tourism to the country as well," he said.
The airport's capacity can be expanded by adding new gates, he said, and there is also the option of building a larger airport farther from the city center, if needed.
Nigam said that one of the keys for developing Estonia as a hub was that the national carrier Estonian Air market itself in the right way to international customers, adding that its efforts with social media and My Estonian Air were steps in the right direction.
He advised that the airline have a long-term plan rather than reacting to circumstances, as he believes they are doing now, and recommended that they engage their customers, offering services that they can deliver rather than failing to keep promises as other airlines do.
"Engage your customers correctly and customers will come. If you make clear your value proposition, what it is to the customer, they will come and fill up the plane," he said.
Steve Roman