Tallinn Airport has been nominated among the five best airports in the world with less than 5 million passengers. The winner will be announced at Routes World, the biggest airport and airline route developer event of the year, which will take place this year on October 7 in Bahrain.

The developers attending the event will evaluate the route development and marketing efforts of airports, including their results, relationships with airlines, marketing cooperation and partnerships with tourism organisations.

Eero Pärgmäe, a member of the management board of Tallinn Airport, says the whole team is delighted to have been nominated. “To be ranked in the top five of the world’s best smaller airports is an outstanding achievement,” he smiled.

“We have a really strong and enthusiastic team here. We put our all into everything we do, so it’s great to see that’s been noticed by the airlines. A total of 16 of them operate regular flights out of Tallinn, and we have to keep an eye on how all of them are doing while trying to entice new carriers to start flying here as well. We work very closely with Visit Estonia, and this nomination is recognition of the work they put in as well. We have a great partnership.”

Nominated alongside Tallinn for this year’s award were the airports on the Caribbean island of Curaçao and in the cities of Halifax (Canada), Newcastle (UK) and Olbia (Italy).

Tallinn Airport among the world´s best

The biggest carrier operating out of Tallinn Airport is airBaltic, which offered 21 direct-flight destinations and transported 29% of passengers in August. The airline served more than 100,000 travellers during the month, making it the first carrier to do so in the airport’s history. The second-biggest airline in August was Ryanair, which operated direct flights to 11 destinations and earned a market share of 19%.

Routes World is the year’s biggest meeting of airports and airlines, at which developers discuss existing routes and future plans and where airports bid to secure new routes for their passengers. The Routes Awards were established in order to recognise outstanding cooperation between developers and showcase their biggest achievements. 

In total, almost 350,000 people used Estonia’s biggest airport to arrive in and depart from the country in August, representing a 23% rise year on year. This increase in passenger numbers was supported by 20% more tickets going on sale than in the same period last year.

A total of 9840 passengers passed through regional airports in Estonia in August: 4007 in Kuressaare, 3860 in Tartu (incl. 3833 on regular flights between Tartu and Helsinki), 1917 in Kärdla and 28 in Pärnu. The airstrip on Ruhnu also served 28 travellers.

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