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Old 2nd Mar 2012, 00:51
  #3939 (permalink)  
davidjohnson6
 
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At the risk of straying off topic, I still reckon that Wizzair running a Luton-Tallinn route is not impossible, and here's my reasoning. Feel free to demolish (politely) if you think otherwise

Agreed that Ryanair already flies from Luton (as does Easyjet from Stansted). However, Tallinn airport has more passengers than Vilnius, and has relatively few LCC routes. Furthermore, Estonian Air, while owned by the state is not in great shape financially. I would humbly suggest that Europe has too many flag carrier airlines - if there isn't room for Malev, Spanair, or (long deceased) Lithuanian Airlines, and companies like CSA are having a tough time, I don't think Estonia has the economic size to support an independent Estonian Airlines, however important the Estonian Govt may deem it to be.

Considering the competition, is there an opportunity for an LCC to be able to set up a base at Tallin, possibly also acting a proxy for St Petersburg, given the reluctance of Lappeenranta's citizens to subsidise flights for Russians through marketing support payments to Ryanair ? Highly doubtful that Tallinn can support more than 1 based LCC. I think there is currently a window for Wizz to open a base, assuming they don't hang about. Leave it too long, and Ryanair will become overly dominant and gain too much of a first-mover advantage.

Were Wizz to open a LTN-TLL route, would Ryanair move their route to Stansted ? Do Easyjet really have the desire to keep TLL open as a small spoke for the forseeable future or would they perhaps move it to fortress Gatwick and take on Estonian Air head-to-head ?

I'm not saying that the next Wizz route from LTN will be Tallin or that it won't be Arad - just that there's plenty of different cities that Wizz could choose as their next Luton route.
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