Boarding.no : Estonian Air passenger growth exceeds 15%

Estonian Air carried altogether 72 544 passengers in May 2008, of these 67 656 on regular flights. The total number of passengers increased 15.3 % y-o-y, again exceeding Tallinn Airport’s 14% passenger increase. The number of passengers on regular flights increased 16.4% and on charter services 2.5%.

The total number of Estonian Air passengers in the first five months of 2008 was 300 811, which is 16.8% more y-o-y. In May the market share of Estonian Air in the regular services segment at Tallinn Airport was 46.7%, an increase of 2.2 percentage points y-o-y. The overall market share (regular and charter flights) of Estonian Air was 43.7%.

Andrus Aljas
(estonian air)

- In spite of the very positive trends in recent months we are sensing the impact of the weakening global and local economy and foresee fall in air travel demand in the months to come. Many air carriers have already seen traffic growth slowdown in the nearby markets,” stated Andrus Aljas, Estonian Air President and CEO. “Estonian Air is analyzing very carefully the trends of the cooling economy and the increasing fuel cost to cope with this situation in a way that would least affect the attractiveness of our services and products,” he continued.

In May Estonian Air operated 1137 flights. The regularity of Estonian Air was 98.8% and the 15-minute punctuality was 85.8%.

The fastest-growing destinations in May were Moscow, with a 62% growth y-o-y, followed by Barcelona and Kiev where the number of passengers grew by 27% and 14% y-o-y.

Several new routes, continuous improvement of customer service and attractive fares have been the main drivers for the passenger growth in May. In addition to purchasing e-tickets for Estonian Air flights, the customers can now book flights combining Estonian Air and its partner airlines SAS, Wideroe, Blue 1, Austrian Ailines and Spanair – altogether more than 100 destinations throughout Europe.