Pärnu Airport falls under the state-owned Tallinn Airport umbrella but has very small passenger numbers. As a result, it has to be subsidized by the state and local government, costing hundreds of thousands of euros each year.

A motion of no-confidence in Pärnu's previous mayor passed earlier this month and a new mayor, Siim Suursild (Isamaa), was voted in to head up the Pärnu Centre-Isamaa-EKRE coalition.

"The current coalition is of the view that the state could put it up for public auction in order to find an operator that way. The city has no plans to start running the airport – just as we are not professional bread bakers, we are even less airport operators," Mayor Suursild said.

The Ministry of Climate had in July presented two options – privatize or hand over to local government.

"When regional airports were discussed by the government cabinet in early July, there was support in principle for a decision either to hand the operation of Pärnu over to the city of Pärnu, meaning the local government itself, or to hold an open tender for the private sector to see whether there is private-sector interest in operating the airport – that is our alternative option," said Sander Salmu, deputy secretary general for mobility at the Ministry of Climate.

"The city of Pärnu was interested in taking over operations. We met with the Pärnu local government, but since the administration has changed, we need to meet with them again to find out whether and under what conditions they are prepared to continue providing support," Salmu went on.

Suursild says the city plans to formulate its final position in September. Whether the financial support for keeping the airport going could continue if privatized remains unclear, but the mayor said he still wanted flight connections for the town.

"We are certainly interested in connections. What matters for Pärnu is that we have connections, not the airport as a standalone entity. Whether the Pärnu taxpayer should be the one maintaining it, we are certainly not convinced of that. If we are talking about air routes here, that is a completely different question, and it is certainly something the current city government would consider very seriously," Suursild said.

Pärnu Airport was renovated at a cost of €18 million five years ago, but has not become fully operational as forecast at that time. A solution has been sought for what to do with it next.

In early July, the Ministry of Climate announced that since the previous Pärnu city government had expressed a desire to operate the airport itself, the ministry would first offer that opportunity to the city of Pärnu. The new city government would prefer the ministry to find a private operator via public auction.

Pärnu Airport served 204 passengers in July, which is its peak time of year, as Pärnu is Estonia's summer capital. The state and the ministry are applying the same rationale to the even smaller airport on the island of Kihnu.

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