Tomorrow Tuesday Tallinn Airport will begin with its planned replacement of the runway surface. Every fourth night of the week, the runway will be closed. For all flights arriving according to schedule, the work shouldn’t mean any interruptions, but Tallinn won’t be able to receive any more flights during that time.

Tartu will have to stand in whenever needed. Priit Koff, corporate communications director at Tallinn Airport, said that they had increased the staff where needed, but that no flight would be directed specially to Tartu. The decision where to turn to in case of a late flight and a closed runway, whether to Helsinki, Riga, or Tartu, would be up to the pilots, Koff said.

The changes didn’t affect passengers, and they didn’t affect connections to Tartu either, Koff added. “The idea is that we can guarantee receiving flights during the night as well.”

Koff also pointed out that this didn’t make Tartu a back-up airport for Tallinn. No flights would be automatically redirected to Tartu, but the pilots would have to choose anyway. Instead, Tartu would be an alternative to Helsinki and Riga.

Last year the Tallinn runway was extended to 3,480 meters. This year the tarmac of all of the airport’s run- and taxiways will be replaced, as the last time extensive work was done on the surfaces was more than 20 years ago.tal