"The airport has to make some changes in its building plans — construction of the parking garage will have to be partly postponed until after the presidency," aiport operator Tallinna Lennujaam CEO Piret Mürk-Dubout told BNS. The airport does not want presidency visitors to be greeted by a construction site upon arrival, which is why some other works need to be rescheduled and will be done as and when necessary in cooperation with the builders.

According to Mürk-Dubout, however, the traffic area in front of the main terminal as well as the terminal's southward extension will both be completed in time for the presidency.

The airport's airside extension is scheduled to be completed in mid-November. "Tallinn will then have the longest civilian runway in the Baltics with a total length of 3,480 meters [over 11,400 feet]," remarked the CEO. Plans for 2017 also include a renewal of the entire paved surface of the runway, which has been waiting its turn for almost two decades, she added.

Immediately upon taking up her position at the beginning of September, Mürk-Dubout listed the extension of the runway, reconstruction of the airport terminal's southern wing as well as the construction of its new parking garage as the airport's three most important development projects prior to the arrival of Estonia's presidency of the EU.

Tallinna Lennujaam plans to invest a total of 127.4 million euros into the airport from 2016-2022, 40.8 million of which will fall into the current year.

Massive reconstruction work at Tallinn Airport began in May of this year.