Air Baltic has published its Tallinn flight schedule for next summer, which shows the number of direct routes will fall from 24 to 13.

The company will stop its routes to Athens, Hamburg, Tirana, Billund, Burgas, Copenhagen, Malta, Oslo, Palma de Mallorca, Rhodes and Split.

From the end of March to the end of October 2027, Air Baltic will operate 13 direct routes from Tallinn to Riga (up to five times a day), Amsterdam (twice a day), Vilnius (10 times a week), Paris (five times a week), Munich (five times a week), Berlin (four times a week), Brussels (four times a week), Malaga (three times a week), London Gatwick (three times a week), Vienna (three times a week), Barcelona (twice a week), Heraklion (twice a week) and Nice (twice a week).

The airline said in a statement that the 2027 summer flight schedule was drawn up in accordance with its revised business plan.

"The airline is focusing its operations on markets with the greatest demand and revenue potential, serving both business and leisure travellers," it said.

Tallinn Airport board member Eero Pärgmäe told ERR that despite the cancellations, Tallinn will not lose connections to all of these destinations.

"Norwegian offers an alternative on the Oslo route and SAS flies to Copenhagen. Wizz Air will continue serving the Tirana route. Negotiations with airlines for the 2027 summer season are still ongoing," he said.

He added that replacing routes depends primarily on the destination, demand and the availability of airlines' aircraft fleets and operating slots.

He stressed that Tallinn Airport is currently served by 16 scheduled airlines, in addition to charter airlines operating there.

"Estonia's air connections do not depend on just one airline. Tallinn has good connections to many of Europe's major hub airports, through which hundreds of destinations around the world can be reached with one connection. Passengers on airBaltic's routes cancelled for 2027 account for only 4 percent of Tallinn Airport's total annual passenger numbers, as these were mostly low-frequency seasonal routes," he said.

Pärgmäe added that this winter season, 39 destinations can be reached directly from Tallinn.

"Eurowings recently announced that it will extend flights on the Tallinn–Düsseldorf route, which opened this summer, into the winter season as well. Flights will operate until November 13, then from December 18 to January 4, and again from March 8, 2027. Air Baltic will also continue flying its Vienna route, which opened this summer, during the winter season. In total, it will fly to 12 destinations. Wizz Air will continue operating seven routes during the winter season," Pärgmäe said.

He added that Jet2.com had previously announced that during this year's Christmas tourism season it would fly to Tallinn from five UK cities instead of the previous three: Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Leeds Bradford and London Gatwick. "The airline has nearly twice as many tickets on sale for its Tallinn routes as last winter season, and approximately 10,000 UK passengers are expected to travel to Estonia on these flights," he said.

Minister of Infrastructure Kuldar Leis (Reform) does not see the move as a catastrophe, however, and said that in a certain sense it is the right development.

Leis told Postimees that since Air Baltic is not exactly going through the easiest of times, it is only positive that the airline is working to make its operations more efficient.

"The most important thing is their overall position, that they remain strong going forward. So in that sense, this step is the right development," he said.

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