OREANDA-NEWS. August 17, 2011. According to data of the first six months of this year, Estonia has become the fastest growing aviation market in passenger number and achieved  the first place among the thirty-four countries with the 37.1% growth, reported the press-centre of Estonian Air.

Estonia was followed by Iceland, Albania, Serbia, Finland and Lithuania, where the growth figures were 23.7%, 23.1%, 20.1%, 18.0% and 17.6% respectively. Latvia (13.8%) took 11th place. Only two countries reported fall in demand in the first half of 2011– Slovakia (-6,6%) and Greece (-7,2%).

The number of passengers in Europe grew altogether by 63 million, which is almost 11% more y-o-y. This is the conclusion of the latest summary by anna.aero (the online channel for aviation analysis and news), which is analysing data of European airports.

“Looking at the developments of recent months, Estonian aviation has provided good and very good news several times. Opening new routes, increasing flight frequency, adding new operators, which have contributed to the significant increase in passenger number. Undoubtedly the excellent work of Tallinn Airport and the individual airlines is behind all this,” commented Tero Taskila, the President and CEO of Estonian Air.

„Tallinn Airport is glad that our national airline has clearly drawn in the upswing.  If this year’s growth has picked up in low-cost activity, then next year we hope to keep in the first place because of rapid growth of Estonian Air,“ said Erik Sakkov, the Board Member of Tallinn Airport.

Estonian Air, the biggest operator at Tallinn Airport, carefully follows the market trends. Due to increasing demand Estonian Air has significantly increased flight capacity to Brussels, Amsterdam, Moscow, London, Barcelona, Paris and  St Petersburg this year, and from September Estonian Air will operate a new route between Tallinn and Trondheim.