Tallinn Airport registered record number of passengers in 2024

TALLINN - The year 2024 brought record passenger numbers, the title of Best Airport, and the best financial results for Tallinn Airport -- along with the highest extraordinary expenses.

The state-owned airport company AS Tallinna Lennujaam recorded a net operating result of 11.3 million euros for 2024. However, due to a 6.6 million euro accounting write-down of fixed assets of regional airports and a 4.3 million euro income tax expense on dividends, the group's net profit amounted to just 460,000 euros, the company said in a press release on Tuesday.

Passenger traffic at Tallinn Airport increased by 18 percent compared to the previous year. The group's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) totaled 20 million euros, reflecting a 12 percent year-on-year growth. Profit excluding extraordinary items amounted to 11.3 million euros.

"I am pleased that 2024 was our new record year -- we surpassed the pre-COVID passenger record, our financial and efficiency indicators improved, our route network was the best ever, and Estonia's connections with the rest of Europe improved. We were again named the best airport of Europe for service and our route development team was nominated among the top five in the world. All this makes last year one of the most successful in Tallinn Airport's history. However, due to extraordinary costs, we ended the year with a significantly lower profit than in 2023," said Riivo Tuvike, chairman of the board of the airport company.

Extraordinary expenses resulted from the write-down of fixed assets of regional airports, dividend income tax and additional income tax allocation. The reduction of state grants led to the need to revalue the assets of regional airports. As a result of a test, the assets of regional airports were written down by 6.6 million euros.

For the first time in its history, Tallinn Airport will pay dividends to its owner in 2025. To this end, the group's parent company extraordinarily withdrew dividends from the subsidiary at the end of 2024, the payment of which generated income tax expenses.

The company's sales revenue increased by 12 percent in 2024 to 62.4 million euros. The increase in revenue was in line with the increase in the number of passengers and flight operations. Tallinn Airport's aviation operations and regional airports as a whole were loss-making, with a negative net result of 1.5 million and 7.7 million euros, respectively.

Compared to 2023, the group's investments increased by 11.2 million euros, or 62 percent, to 29.3 million euros in 2024. The largest investment projects were the expansion of the apron at Tallinn Airport, the construction of aviation fuel terminals, the construction of logistics complexes, the purchase of new cabin baggage screening equipment and the expansion and renovation of the business lounge.