Well, depending on how exactly you measure success and failure... Ryanair started a lot of routes that they didn't continue, and the ones that did continue are a lot less frequent. Using smaller aircraft FlyBe also failed kind of entirely, measured in that they started a lot of routes from Tallinn and all of the ones that didn't exist before stopped.
Air Baltic tried TAY-RIX, and as adding TAY made flights to RIX cheaper they were clearly having a good go and trying to make it attractively priced. I suspect they are the only people that could possibly operate that route, as I doubt Tartu is full of people who want to be in Riga (if it was there'd be more buses) so it needs to all be about the connection opportunities and operated by a small plane.
I imagine Russians were partly behind Ryanair and Air Baltic's attempts in Lappeenranta, which also didn't work out massively well for either. If I was Finnish it would take a lot to make me want to put a ferry trip between myself and my departure airport (and as it would have to be a cost conscious customer then it would likely be a ferry trip), particularly just in terms of reliability and during the winter. I think the sad fact is that there are more Estonians willing to travel to Riga for flights than there are Finns willing to travel to Tallinn. (And indeed, there are probably more Estonians willing to travel to Helsinki for flights than vice versa).
Last edited by 01475; 16th Nov 2015 at 19:32.