Transport

Estonian airports were used last year by 1,449,037 passengers, by 55,409 more than in 2009. Tallinn Airport serviced 1.38 million passengers, Tartu Airport 23,504, Kuressaare Airport 19,702, Kärdla Airport 10,551, Pärnu Airport 5,184, Ruhnu Airport 3,086 and Kihnu Airport 2,215 passengers, writes LETA.

Estonian airports handled last year 11,145 tonnes of cargo versus 20,198 tonnes in 2009. Tallinn Airport handled 10,972 tonnes of the cargo.

Mail deliveries via airports totalled 996.4 tonnes, of which 987 tonnes via Tallinn airport. In 2009 the mail volume was 940 tonnes.

Estonian national carrier Estonian Air carried altogether 582,320 passengers in 2010, 533,001 of these on regular flights, the company announced on Tuesday.

Estonian Air carried from Tallinn 490,116 passengers.

The total number of passengers increased 3.4% y-o-y, on regular flights 4.5%. The load factor was 61.3%.

In December Estonian Air carried 42,813 passengers, out of which 42,688 on regular flights. The total number of passengers on Estonian Air flights increased 28.4 % y-o-y. The number of passengers on regular flights increased 38.7% y-o-y.

According to Rauno Parras, the Vice President Commercial of Estonian Air, in 2010 the growth in passenger numbers was according to the forecast: the low demand in the beginning of the year and the stagnation of flight operations caused by the volcanic eruption were compensated by positive results in the second half of the year. The biggest growth was achieved in December. “The positive results were supported by clarifying the ownership in Estonian Air and cooperation with different European airlines, like SAS, KLM, Royal Dutch Airlines and Brussels Airlines,” said Rauno Parras.

In 2010 the market share of Estonian Air in the regular flights segment at Tallinn Airport was 41.6%, which is 3.9%age points lower y-o-y. The total market share (regular and charter flights) was 38.9%, which is 2.5%age points lower y-o-y.

In 2010 Estonian Air operated 10,316 flights, which is 1.8% more flights y-o-y. In December 757 flights were operated, which is 15.1% more flights y-o-y.

In 2010 the regularity of Estonian Air was 98.1% and the 15-minute punctuality was 86.7%. In December the regularity and punctuality were 96.8% and 71.2% respectively.

The fastest-growing destinations in 2010 were St Petersburg and Amsterdam were the number of passengers increased by more than double. On Moscow and Kuressaare the growth was 19.9% and 9.4% respectively.