Tallinn Airport net-profit success despite the impact of COVID-19

Credit: Tallinn Airport

Although Tallinn Airport earned a profit of €0.1 million during such a tumultuous time in aviation, the airport experienced 9,725 flight operations carried out with only 283,495 passengers travelling through, during the start of 2021. This passenger volume is 50 per cent less compared to the corresponding months in 2020, as well as 81 per cent less than similar months in 2019.

Regardless of the increased number of passengers, flight operations and the slight recovery of tourism, the company continues to focus on efficient management of costs. The group recorded a total operating income of €18.1 million, which is €2.1 million less than in the comparable period of 2020. 

Riivo Tuvike, Chairman of the Management Board of AS Tallinna Lennujaam, said: “The good results of the pre-COVID-19 period, i.e., for the first two months of 2020, can be seen in this comparison. The reason for the reduced sales revenue was lower revenue from aviation, caused by slower than expected recovery of air traffic.

“The summer months and a somewhat improved virus situation have led to an increase in the number of flight operations, as well as the number of passengers, which in turn has improved the overall financial situation of the company.”

In spite of a better-than-expected summer 2021, the end of 2021 is expected to be difficult, as the company forecasts that this year will be 33 per cent of the passenger volume of 2019, reaching only 1.06 million passengers. 

Tuvike added: “In the first half of 2021, we made investments totaling €15.9 million. For us, it is important to continue with the works of the airside area, as well as the baggage area of Tallinn Airport, where we are upgrading the baggage sorting system; in addition to works progressing also at Pärnu Airport. In addition to investments in concrete, the green transition continues to be important for us and we are moving daily towards achieving the goal of carbon neutrality by 2030. This means that investments in creating the ability to produce green energy, acquiring environmentally friendly machinery and increasing the overall awareness will be more important than before. In 2021, we plan to invest €35.9 million in infrastructure and green transition, which is 106 per cent more than in 2020 and 252 per cent more than in 2019. 

Construction and development work still progresses at Tallinn Airport with the aim of establishing new aircraft service hangars and improvements to the cargo area. 

“Our goal is to create an MRO and a cargo hub in the EU with modern infrastructure and facilities. Already today, Tallinn Airport is one of the MRO hubs in the EU and our good location between the EU and Asia gives us potential to increase the volume of cargo that we want to release with the new MRO and Cargo City,” commented Tuvike.

“The expectations of passengers have changed as a result of the crisis, including an increase for personal approach, going into details and finding speedy solutions. I am pleased that the results of the passenger survey Airport Service Quality (ASQ) conducted by Airport Council International (ACI) on a quarterly basis, confirmed that the passengers continue to be very satisfied with our service.”