Airport, Covid-19, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Medicine, Tourism, Transport

To these six destinations -- Frankfurt, Helsinki, Copenhagen, London, Riga and Warsaw -- flights can be operated from Tallinn regardless of the infection rates in the respective countries.

As before, it will be permitted to operate flights from Tallinn to destinations in countries where the infection rate is lower than 25 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

Prime Minister Juri Ratas said that the COVID-19 related situation has put before us new difficult choices. 

"In making the exceptions, the government on the one hand had to assess the national, economic and societal needs of Estonia when it comes to air connections, and on the other hand to consider the potential risk of the spread of the COVID-19 infection in a situation where infection rates are growing both in Europe and globally," Ratas said.

"The government made the exceptions concerning air connections considering that the risk of getting infected can be limited with trust measures imposed on travel, such as by means of the requirement for self-isolation for 14 days when arriving from an infection risk country. Despite that, I call on everyone to travel only in the case of urgency and to seriously consider the destinations and the purpose of one's travel," the prime minister said.

Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Taavi Aas added that the number of countries with a high infection level in Europe has grown to a level where most of the air traffic from Tallinn would have to be closed down when considering the current restrictions on air traffic. Based in that, the minister made a proposal to the government to endorse a list of destinations to which an air corridor from Estonia must remain open. 

"In making the selection of cities, we based ourselves on the passenger numbers and also on which destinations are important hubs that would ensure air connections for Estonia with the entire world. An important argument also was that mail and air cargoes, too, are transported with scheduled flights, therefore it is necessary to keep the selected six air routes open," Aas said.

As before, it continues to be possible to operate flights from Tallinn to countries where the  COVID-19 infection rate is lower than 25 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The epidemiological situation in different countries is reviewed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications every Friday and the operation of air services permitted or prohibited in accordance with the rates of the spread of the virus.