Baltic national carrier Estonian Air is to start serving London City Airport from spring next year when it resumes services to the UK capital. The carrier has announced it will inaugurate flights between Tallinn and London City on March 1, 2013 having previously offered flights to London Gatwick. The airport switch has been made possible by the airline’s continual fleet renewal and the arrival of additional Embrear E-Jet variants.

Estonian Air confirms it will initially introduce a three times weekly service between Tallinn and London City from March 1, 2013 but has already planned frequency growth as additional aircraft arrive in its fleet. A fourth rotation will be introduced from May 2, 2013 while the route will increase to a six times weekly offering from June 1, 2013.

Speaking to The HUB at last week’s European Regions Airline Association General Assembly in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Tero Taskila, Chief Executive Officer, Estonian Air confirmed the operational schedule is based around the delivery of new 112-seat E190s, which will be used on the route. “The start is tied directly to the delivery of our E190s,” he said. “London has been an important destination in our network but we were aware of the need to offer a better schedule than the twice weekly services we had been flying into Gatwick recently. The new London City service enables us to boost our frequency while at the same time enhancing our offering for business travelers.”

Estonian Air first launched flights to London Gatwick in October 1995 and just a year later it had boosted its schedule up to six flights per week using Boeing 737-500 equipment. In May 2004 frequencies were further boosted to more than a daily offering and the following year a new Tallinn – Manchester route was introduced. This ended in May 2006, while frequencies were cut in London Gatwick from November 2008 and earlier this year the carrier announced the route will be closed from October 2012 for the winter season.

Also speaking The HUB in Dublin, Bernard Lavelle, Sales Director, London City Airport revealed that Routes played an important role in this deal. “I first had a speculative meeting with the carrier at Routes Europe in Cagliari in May 2011 before they even had an aircraft on order that was suitable to land at London City, but when there was speculation that an E-Jet acquisition was on the cards. This was followed up at Routes Europe in Tallinn earlier this year and we subsequently finalised the arrangement during a second visit to the Estonian capital after the event.”

Estonian Air was the first operator to provide regular services between Estonia and the UK, but it now faces strong competition from low-cost operators easyJet and Ryanair. easyJet first entered the Estonian market in February 2005 and now offers non-stop links to Tallinn from Liverpool and London Stansted. Meanwhile, Ryanair launched flights to Tallinn in November 2011 and now flies there from London Luton and Manchester.

As one of the most rapidly developing economies in the Baltic region, Tallinn is establishing itself as a destination of choice for UK travelers. According to UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data, 244, 073 passengers travelled between the UK and Estonia in 2011, up from 104,387 in 2010 and just 29,166 ten years ago in 2001.

The table below highlights the annual capacity fluctuations between Estonia and the UK since 2000 showing the clear impact the arrival of easyJet and Ryanair have had on the market in 2005 and 2011, respectively.