BNS - The low-cost airline Ryanair will start flights out of Tallinn on Dec. 13, sales and marketing manager Laszlo Tamas said at a news conference in Tallinn on Thursday.
He named Oslo Rygge, Stockholm Skavsta, Dublin, Edinburgh, London Luton, Duesseldorf Weeze and Milan Bergamo as destinations.
Flights to Oslo, Stockholm and Duesseldorf are scheduled to begin on Dec. 13, to Dublin on Dec. 14, to Milan on Dec. 16, and to London and Edinburgh on Jan. 10. Ryanair has bases at all the above-mentioned destinations.
Sale of tickets will start on the website of the carrier on Oct. 1.
Ryanair expects to carry 300,000 passengers annually on the said routes.
Tamas said the new services should help create 300 new jobs in Estonia in both the hotel and the restaurant business. The tourists arriving by Ryanair are expected to leave around 50 million euros in Estonia annually, he observed.
If Ryanair does well in Tallinn during the first six months new destinations can be expected, he added.
One of the main reasons why Ryanair decided to come to Tallinn was the favorable terms offered to companies launching new flights by the local airport operator, Tallinna Lennujaam, Tamas said.
Tallinna Lennujaam CEO Rein Loik told BNS that easy terms will be in effect for five years. The airport charges of a carrier opening new routes will be 75 percent lower than usual and passenger-related expenses will be approximately 50 percent lower.
Loik added that if at present an airline has to pay the airport 10 euros per passenger the fee will come down to seven euros from the new year. The airport operator last lowered fees in April.
Tallinna Lennujaam is working with many airlines to bring new flights to Tallinn, Loik said and voiced the hope that the new flight support program will make Tallinn attractive to carriers.
Ryanair expects to carry 73.5 million passengers on international flights this year. Its passenger numbers totaled 65 million in 2009.
The no-frills carrier that is flying to 14 destinations from the Latvian capital Riga served 850,000 passengers there last year. This year's forecast is 900,000-950,000.
The flights the carrier operates out of Lithuania's second-largest city Kaunas number 19. This year's passenger numbers there are expected to exceed one million. Ryanair has a base in Kaunas.
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