Tallinn Airport

Infobox Airport
name = Tallinn Airport
nativename = Tallinna lennujaam
nativename-a =
nativename-r =


image-width =
caption =
IATA = TLL
ICAO = EETN
type = Public
owner =
operator = Estonian Government
city-served = Tallinn, Estonia
location =
elevation-f = 131
elevation-m = 40
coordinates = coord|59|24|59|N|024|47|57|E|type:airport
website = [http://www.tallinn-airport.ee/eng www.tallinn-airport.ee]
metric-elev =
metric-rwy =
r1-number = 08/26
r1-length-f = 10,070
r1-length-m = 3,070
r1-surface = Asphalt/Concrete
stat-year = 2007
stat1-header = International Passengers
stat1-data = 1,708,024
stat2-header = Domestic Passengers
stat2-data = 20,406
stat3-header = Total passengers
stat3-data = 1,728,430
footnotes = Statistics from AS Tallinna Lennujaam.

Tallinn Airport or Ülemiste Airport (IATA: TLL, ICAO: EETN; Estonian: "Tallinna lennujaam") is the largest airport in Estonia and home base of the national airline Estonian Air. Tallinn Airport is open to both domestic and international flights. It is located approximately 4 kilometers from the city center of Tallinn on the eastern shore of Lake Ülemiste.

The airport has a single asphalt-concrete runway that is 3070 meters long and 45 meters wide(large enough to handle wide-bodied aircraft such as theBoeing 747), five taxiways and fourteen terminal gates.

The airport has also seen military use as an interceptor aircraft base. It was home to 384 IAP (384th Interceptor Aircraft Regiment) which flew MiG-23P aircraft.

History

The building of Tallinn Airport started in 1932, and the airport was opened officially on 20 September 1936, although it had been operational a good while before the official opening. Before World War II, Tallinn Airport had regular connections to abroad by at least Lufthansa, LOT and the Finnish company Aero (now Finnair). Between 1945 and 1989, Aeroflot was the only airline that served Tallinn Airport. Regular flights with jet planes started in 1962. A new terminal building was built in the late 1970, and the runway was also lengthened then. The first foreign airline that did regular flights from Tallinn after World War II was SAS in the autumn of 1989. The terminal building was completely modernized in 1999 and greatly expanded in 2008.

2008 expansion

The airport underwent a large expansion project between January 2006 and September 2008. The terminal was expanded in three directions, resulting in 14 new gates, separate lounges for Schengen and non-Schengen passengers, 10 new check-in desks and a new restaurant and cafes. Outside the terminal, the apron was refurbished and expanded and a new taxiway was added. The new terminal allows the airport to handle twice as much passengers as it could handle before.

Terminal building

There are a small number of vendors in the terminal building, including three restaurants, three coffee shops, a duty free shop, cigar lounge, book store, Hugo Boss and JOOP shops etc. The terminal area also contains a post office, telephone services, and free wired/wireless Internet access. Car rental, travel agency, currency exchange, and porter services are also available. There are two bus stops at the the terminal, one stop in front of the departure area (the bus comes from the city center) and another one in front of the arrivals area(the bus goes to the city center). There are two ground handling agencies: Tallinn Airport GH and Estonian Air.

Renaming

After the death of former president of Estonia Lennart Meri on March 14 2006, journalist Argo Ideon from Eesti Ekspress proposed to honor the president's memory by naming Tallinn Airport after him - "Tallinna Lennart Meri Rahvusvaheline Lennujaam" (Lennart Meri International Airport), drawing parallels with JFK Airport, Charles de Gaulle Airport, etc. [Ideon, A. [http://ekspress.ee/viewdoc/BA6BA527F61B26D4C2257131005EB487 Lennu jaam] . 15 March, 2006. Eesti Ekspress. ("In Estonian")] . Ideon's article also mentioned the fact that Meri himself had shown concern for the condition of the then Soviet-era construction (in one memorable case Meri, having arrived from Japan, led the group of journalists that were expecting him, to the airport's toilets to do the interview there, in order to point out the shoddy condition of the facilities [ [http://www.balticsww.com/new_airport.htm City paper—The Baltic States] ] ).

The name change was discussed at a board meeting on March 29, 2006 [ [http://www.postimees.ee/300306/online_uudised/196439.php Lennujaama nõukogu arutab nimevahetust] . 29 March, 2006. Postimees. ("In Estonian")] , and on the opening of the new terminal on 19 September 2008, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip officially announced the renaming would take place in March, 2009 [ [http://www.tallinn-airport.ee/news/?newsID=3556 Uuenenud lennujaam saab kevadel Lennart Meri nimeliseks] . 21 September, 2008. Tallinna Lennujaam. ("In Estonian")]

tatistics

Total passengers using the airport has increased on average by 14.2% annually since 1998. Passenger data reflects international and domestic flights combined, share of domestic flights compared to international flights was marginal. Passenger and cargo numbers exclude direct transit.cite web |url=http://www.tallinn-airport.ee/index.php?page=372 |title=Airport statistics |accessdate= |author= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |year= |month= |format= |work= |publisher= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ]

Baltic's busiest airports by passenger traffic

Airlines and destinations

*airBaltic (Riga, Vilnius)
*Avies (Kärdla)
*City Airline (Göteborg)
*Czech Airlines (Prague)
*easyJet (Berlin-Schönefeld(ends 2 November), London-Stansted)
*Finnair (Helsinki)
*Estonian Air (Barcelona, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dublin [seasonal] , Dubrovnik [seasonal] , Frankfurt, Hamburg [seasonal] , Kiev-Boryspil, London-Gatwick, Milan-Malpensa, Munich , Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Oslo, Paris-Charles de Gaulle [seasonal] , Rome [seasonal] , Stockholm-Arlanda, Simferopol [seasonal] , Vienna)
**operated by Estonian Air Regional (Helsinki, Kuressaare, Minsk, Stockholm-Arlanda, Vilnius)
*Finncomm Airlines (Helsinki)
*flyLAL (Vilnius)
*KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
**KLM Cityhopper (Amsterdam)
*LOT Polish Airlines (Warsaw) (ends 26 October)
*Lufthansa (Frankfurt)
*Norwegian Air Shuttle (Oslo, Stockholm-Arlanda)

Cargo Airlines

*AirBridgeCargo Airlines
*ACT Airlines
*DHL
*FedEx Express
*Jade Cargo International
*Kuzu Airlines Cargo
*MNG Airlines
*TNT Airways
*UPS

Charters

*AMC Airlines
*Futura International Airways
*LatCharter
*Air Finland
*LTE International Airways
*Estonian Air
*Eurocypria Airlines
*Airest
*FlyLal
*Aurela
*Air VIA
*Viking Airlines
*Titan Airways
*Inter Airlines
*Fischer Air Polska
*Iberworld

References

External links

* [http://www.tallinn-airport.ee/index.php?intro_eng=true Official website]
* [http://aip.eans.ee/index.aw?section=9396&action=genpdf&file=9396.pdf AIP Estonia EETN AD 2 Tallinn] - information from AIP Estonia (.pdf)
* [http://europe.eu.int/comm/transport/air/single_sky/studies/doc/finalized/2006_02_20_infrastructure/estonia_air_transport_infrastructure_en.pdf Estonia air transport infrastructure] (.pdf)
* [http://www.tallinn-life.com/tallinn/airport Tallinn Life: A guide to Tallinn Airport, including transferring from the airport to the city]