The company's total operating income fell 24.1 million on year to 2020, to €36.4 million, while Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) stood at €5.8 million.

Turnover also fell, by 56 percent, to €20.6 million in 2020, while passenger numbers fell even more, by around 75 percent compared with 2019, to 863,585.

During the government's emergency situation which ran mid-March to mid-May last year, over 90 percent of scheduled flights had been canceled. Some connections have been restored, including recent news that Switzerland's national airline is setting up a Tallinn-Zürich connection in the summer.

In 2019, over 3.26 million passengers passed through Tallinn Airport,'s facilities while net profit was €9.7 million.

Tallinn Airport operates six regional airports, mostly serving Estonia's islands, as well as the second and third cities, Tartu and Pärnu, plus the main Lennart Meri airport in the capital.

The airport laid of 25 percent of its workforce over last year, and currently employs a little over 500 people.

Tallinn Airport CEO said: "Higher losses compared with 2020 reflect the strong first two months of last year (i.e. before the pandemic began – ed.) and the depletion of reserves, which prevent further cost reductions, plus a lack of support measures," adding that heavy snowfall in January and February led to cleaning costs 10 times higher than the same months in 2020.

2021 will be even more complicated, Tuvike added, with the passenger through-flow estimated at a third that of 2019, I.e one million, while January and February already had lower passenger numbers than expected.

Tallinn Airport forecasts turnover of €21.3 million for 2021, with losses expected to be €5.3 million.

The airport will nonetheless continue investing this year, Tuvike went on, including expanding its passenger terminal and facilities, construction at Pärnu Airport, and also the installation of solar panels with investments to ttal €33.9 million (compared with €16.7 million in 2020).

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