International Air Traffic
Airlines
From March 28, 2022, the flight connection between Tartu and Helsinki was reopened.
Finnair flies to Helsinki five times a week using an ATR 72 aircraft – a turboprop plane suited for regional commuting. Flight time is 45 minutes.
The flights will take place in the evening on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, allowing travellers to catch connecting flights in Finnair’s late-night wave to Asia, Scandinavia and also domestic routes within Finland. The flights will take place during the day on Tuesdays and Thursdays, offering the convenient opportunity to change aircraft and to catch connecting flights within Finnair’s European route network and to Asia.
The flight schedule according to the local time can be found here.
History
Tartu Airport has stood where it now stands since 1946, when a unit for medical aid aircraft was set up there. Later it was known as a base for ambulance flights for Maarjamõisa Hospital. Most flights from the airport were nevertheless organised to meet agricultural and forestry needs. When the number of passenger flights increased, a new runaway and facilities were built.
Regular flights to Piirissaare, Jõhvi, Narva, Viljandi, Pärnu, Kihnu, Ruhnu, Valga, Võru, Kuressaare, Kärdla, Leningrad (St Petersburg), Moscow, Minsk, Kyiv, Odessa, Simferopol and Helsinki started from here.
Since 1990 Tartu Airport has been a training base for aviation education. At present the Estonian Aviation Academy is the biggest employer at the airport, with the proportion of training flights per year reaching as high as 98%.
Regular air traffic in Tartu was restored in 2009.