According to Ryanair Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Jason McGuinness, these airport fees are the only reason for the announced route cancellations.

He stated that this is not related to a shortage of aircraft, referring to the fact that Boeing delivered some 20 fewer aircraft to Ryanair than planned last year.

Beginning in April, an additional approximately €3 will be added to the price of plane tickets in Tallinn and Tartu. Tallinn Airport is introducing a new security fee, as well as raising the fee for special needs passengers.

According to Ryanair, it is unlikely that the canceled routes will be reopened in the near future.

"Ultimately I think now the government needs to get involved; the government needs to grab ahold of this," McGuinness said.

"I think the management team has shown themselves incapable of managing the airport," the CCO continued. "As I said, a plus-70 percent increase in charges from April is just in a parallel universe. A charge increase like that is directly the opposite of what's happening across Europe at the moment. At the moment, if we look across the world, there's still less flights this week than there were in the same week in 2019, prior to [the] COVID [pandemic]."

Tallinn Airport CCO and board member Eero Pärgmäe disagrees with the criticism.

"This is Europe's leading airline," he highlighted. "They are big, their brand is well-known and they're able to sell tickets. At the same time, their negotiation tactics are always very aggressive, meaning that when they grow, they always ask for something in return. So that is where the decision lies."

According to Pärgmäe, Tallinn Airport's charges are totally competitive compared with their Baltic neighbors and cheaper than Scandinavia.

"Even compared to Poland we're slightly cheaper, and compared to Germany we're significantly cheaper," he highlighted. "So I believe the conditions we have established for airlines are entirely favorable."

According to Minister of Infrastructure Vladimir Svet (SDE), this increase in airport charges was not news to Ryanair.

"All of this was announced by the airport last fall," Svet recalled. "So claiming that this might be news to anyone likely isn't very justified. ... I'd be more saddened if Estonian politicians were to start going and explaining to airport directors how they should organize the airport's operations."

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