No government consensus on privatization of Pärnu Airport

The state is looking for the best ways to make use of Pärnu Airport, which is currently idle. The Reform Party and Eesti 200 support the privatization of the airport, while Minister of Infrastructure Vladimir Svet (SDE) is against the idea, saying it would mean writing off millions that have already been invested.
From the perspective of both politicians and business, Pärnu Airport has not lived up to expectations. There has been no influx of passengers to boost local tourism. Therefore, the Estonian state is now looking for ways to find a new use for the airport. One of the options being considered is its privatization.
"It would be sensible to find a use for it that brings benefits to the Pärnu region and its infrastructure owners. Whether the state will do that, I have my doubts. It will most likely have to be in private ownership or in co-operation with private owners," said Prime Minister Kristen Michal (Reform).
"What kind of use is still down to representatives of the airport and the private operators who own the infrastructure to determine: whether that's freight transport or some kind of repair services that they could provide there. If that's something else, or it's passenger transport, it's up to them to outline what those possibilities are. Maybe there are options that the state or the municipalities have not come up with yet," he added.
"We think this airport should be privatized. Today it is not running, as a state-owned company it is working very inefficiently. There are practically no flights from there. A company that operates in the market could probably manage the strategy better so that flights actually operate from there," said Minister of Education and Research and chair of Eesti 200 Kristina Kallas.
The City of Pärnu also wants to sell the airport. However Minister of Infrastructure Vladimir Svet (SDE) doubts that privatization is the right way forward, as the state has invested more than €20 million in the airport and would thus be unlikely to recoup it.
"The state went against the entrepreneurs and the local government, and made this big investment, but if someone now says 'now sell it off' and then says 'certainly for less money,' [then] I say it would not be very well-intentioned of us to go against this plan," Svet said.
The minister of infrastructure is preparing an analysis of potential future uses of the airport, including those that would not involve its privatization.
"Is it possible to attract maintenance companies, is it possible to attract more private aviation, is it possible to build other businesses around it. This hasn't really been analyzed in a systematic way. In this analysis we have to agree with the local authorities, the operators and Tallinn Airport, which owns it," Svet said.
Politicians do not envision there being regular flights at Pärnu Airport in the near future.
"I don't rule out something happening there there at some point, but if I were to say now that we will just wait another year and then maybe something will come up, I think that would just be irresponsible talk," Svet said.
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Editor: Marko Tooming, Michael Cole