Pärnu Airport

In October 1937, the Pärnu town council designated an area of 0.28 km² (0.11 sq mi) for the building of an airport. Operations at the new airport began in 1939.

During the Soviet occupation, the airfield was operated by the Soviet Air Force. It was an interceptor aircraft base, operated by 366 IAP (366th Interceptor Aviation Regiment) and possibly the 655 IAP (655th Interceptor Aviation Regiment), which flew Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 aircraft from the 1970s until the 1990s.[2]

Aeroflot used to operate Tartu-Viljandi-Pärnu-Kingissepa (now Kuressaare) services using Antonov An-2 biplanes.

In the summer of 1992, the re-constituted Estonian defence ministry took over the military airport, which had drawn down its operations. On 15 October the same year it was decided to build a civil airport at the site of the old military airport. The old runway was closed on 1 July 1997, and regular flights started to use the runway that had belonged to the Soviet air force.

The small airline Air Livonia flew from Pärnu to Kuressaare, Kihnu and Ruhnu until 2006. In the summer of 2010, Estonian Air operated one return flight a week from Stockholm.[3]

The airport is often visited by private aircraft from Scandinavia and other European countries. 5,148 people travelled via Pärnu Airport in 2010. At present, the condition of the runway makes it unsuitable for larger aircraft flying international flights, and in 2016, there were proposals to overhaul and refit the airport, alongside (possibly) a brand-new terminal for handling of larger jets.[4] The airport was also used for charter flights from Finland and Sweden until 2014, when the deteriorating condition of the runway meant that it was no longer suitable for larger aircraft.[4]

The airport is closed until June 2021 for building works.[5]

List of the busiest airports in the Baltic states

• Pärnu Airport