ERR — broadcast
20260920 083000 UTC
521 transcript segments
Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking
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Machine transcription. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a verbatim quotation record.

[00:00:00] bring them from their homes, board a plane and then they have a little package with them, I brought
[00:00:03] you books here and it's been like
[00:00:07] this, it's worked like this, that
[00:00:11] one family's library, from which you can take and to which it is then
[00:00:14] returned and sometimes not returned and well, it's not too bad, we were hit by such
[00:00:17] an avalanche of awards that I remember when I
[00:00:21] left the airport, then the best
[00:00:24] airport
[00:00:26] awards or those, well framed exhibits, no longer fit
[00:00:30] on the wall and it all started with that and it continues to this
[00:00:34] day, I'm always happy when the airport gets another award, but it all
[00:00:37] started with that library idea
[00:00:39] actually.
[00:00:45] Flight 881 to Frankfurt, please proceed immediately to gate number
[00:00:49] six.
[00:00:54] A homely airport has also meant that
[00:00:58] to take care of passengers, we have even had to break
[00:01:01] rules.
[00:01:05] The terminal was actually closed, there were maybe three
[00:01:09] people in the whole terminal, a chartered flight landed at our backup airfield
[00:01:12] without prior notice, families, many children were there and it
[00:01:16] came at an inconvenient time in that none of our
[00:01:19] facilities were open here, when we finally got them into
[00:01:22] the terminal, the scene was relatively bleak because they had been sitting
[00:01:26] on the plane for a very long time, first waiting
[00:01:30] for the landing opportunity, then they... came here and when they arrived here,
[00:01:33] they were quite hungry,
[00:01:36] thirsty, then at one point an idea came to mind, that
[00:01:40] the only 24-hour establishment nearby is at the Ülemiste
[00:01:43] intersection, at that time it was Statoil, where we could perhaps get
[00:01:47] some water and sweets for the children, so that they
[00:01:50] could spend the night here relatively decently until
[00:01:53] morning when everyone else came to work and then I drove to Statoil, bought
[00:01:57] as much water as there was there.
[00:02:00] uh, some chocolates and things
[00:02:03] and then we took it through security to the people
[00:02:07] there, that it was good
[00:02:11] to see how they looked,
[00:02:14] usually serves, well, in summer, let's say, we how people felt a little lighter, I was still quite nervous, because I was still on
[00:02:18] probation at that time and
[00:02:20] when I arrived at the main building the next day
[00:02:24] with that wrinkled bag and asked if it
[00:02:28] was all okay because, well, I actually broke all possible internal
[00:02:31] rules and all sorts of other things, but just to create that better service or that
[00:02:35] homelier feeling, well, it was essential, we had no
[00:02:39] other choice, then, uh, actually
[00:02:41] the reaction I got was super cool, that
[00:02:45] the situation couldn't have been resolved better at that
[00:02:48] moment.
[00:02:54] An airport is definitely not just runways and buildings and
[00:02:57] technology, an airport is still shaped by people in the end, and the
[00:03:01] people who start their journey with us, but also
[00:03:05] the people who actually run and
[00:03:08] create this airport, that many of these people actually
[00:03:11] remain in the background, uh, but without
[00:03:14] these people, actually no plane takes off and
[00:03:18] no journey happens, these are the
[00:03:21] people who should be thanked the most, those
[00:03:24] who have built the airport so far, those who work
[00:03:27] for us today and also definitely those who...
[00:03:30] "in the future will operate the airport, with these people we
[00:03:33] actually
[00:03:34] create Tallinn Airport.
[00:03:41] 20 years ago, Tallinn Airport handled about 400,000
[00:03:44] passengers and today we expect 5 million
[00:03:48] passengers by 2030, currently it's about 3.8
[00:03:52] million passengers. A lot of it comes from the fact that Estonian people are becoming
[00:03:56] wealthier and have more opportunities to travel more, and we
[00:03:59] see that this will also happen in the coming years and
[00:04:02] of course also opportunities that airlines
[00:04:06] offer, that there are always more travel options coming
[00:04:10] and it's good to know that Estonians are adopting them more and more,
[00:04:25] This is a sound that no one at the airport wants
[00:04:28] to hear, it means that rescuers
[00:04:30] have to get dressed in a hurry, jump into the car
[00:04:34] and drive out
[00:04:35] of the garage.
[00:04:39] By the way, the airport has its own rescue team,
[00:04:43] which means that they do not go to extinguish fires
[00:04:46] outside the airfield area.
[00:04:48] I've seen something like this in a regular
[00:04:52] fire station. How fast do you have to get dressed and into
[00:04:56] the car when the alarm rings? Well, it's about 30-40 seconds.
[00:05:00] That's because our duty to respond
[00:05:03] to any point on the runway is actually three minutes, within three minutes
[00:05:06] we have to be on site and we have to be ready for
[00:05:10] firefighting operations. Is this car... is it the same kind of car as, for example,
[00:05:14] I don't know, my home Nõmme Station? No, these cars are
[00:05:17] bigger, their water capacity is greater, their foam capacity is greater
[00:05:21] and there are also special monitors on the cars, there are
[00:05:24] roof monitors, front monitors, whose water and
[00:05:27] extinguishing agent discharge capacity is very high, so
[00:05:30] they are much larger and
[00:05:33] more powerful. The door still opens like a door opens, oh
[00:05:37] my God and this is then the team's
[00:05:40] car, it's longer but... with a line and here in the back
[00:05:44] sit four rescuers, they have visible breathing apparatus, so even
[00:05:48] during the departure, they put on breathing apparatus, so that
[00:05:51] when they arrive at the scene, they are then ready to work. There is also
[00:05:54] additional equipment, various dry suits, if we have to respond
[00:05:57] to an air accident on a body of water, thermal cameras and other
[00:06:01] equipment, for first aid and everything else, well on these cars here, perhaps in addition, you can also see
[00:06:05] below there's that pipe, which is then self-defense, that if you have to drive
[00:06:08] through fire, then you can turn it on, so that the tires don't catch fire, yes.
[00:06:12] So it's like in the movies, like in the movies
[00:06:15] yes, that a rescue vehicle can drive through flames, yes,
[00:06:19] if there is a fuel fire, for example, on the runway, then you can drive through it, so that the car
[00:06:23] itself doesn't catch fire.
[00:06:25] So why do you need this, why do you need a boat, an air, you don't
[00:06:29] deal with rescuing seaplanes here, that, uh, our
[00:06:33] duty is to respond to an air accident
[00:06:36] uh, within five nautical miles, which is 9.3 km, so
[00:06:40] if something happens in Naissaar...
[00:06:43] the front island is a bit out, but Tallinn Bay is definitely
[00:06:45] in, so we have to react there,
[00:06:49] our first major body of water of course is Lake Ülemiste, which is
[00:06:52] actually a large body of water, over Lake Ülemiste goes our
[00:06:56] ascent and descent sector, so actually we are also ready
[00:06:59] to rescue people there, to bring them
[00:07:01] out of the water.
[00:07:06] Flying has become very, very safe, incidents
[00:07:10] are rare, uh, what... does this mean that you then
[00:07:13] mostly sit with your hands folded, no work,
[00:07:16] no calls, no need to react quickly? No, we don't
[00:07:19] sit idle, we still have
[00:07:23] other calls and also daily
[00:07:26] trainings, exercises, there's a lot
[00:07:30] of equipment, the equipment is complex, there are many different tools and
[00:07:33] to know how to work with them, then that means constant
[00:07:36] practice.
[00:07:41] Smaller... incidents still happen, luckily none
[00:07:44] of them have ended in an accident, there have been
[00:07:47] so-called engine failures,
[00:07:51] pilot errors, technical turnbacks still happen
[00:07:55] quite a bit, so yes, they still happen
[00:07:58] sometimes. How to assess an airport rescuer's
[00:08:01] career, when has it been successful or
[00:08:04] fortunate or gone well? Well,
[00:08:08] an airport rescuer's career can definitely be assessed as going very
[00:08:11] well if during the entire career one does not have to participate in resolving any air accident.
[00:08:15] That career
[00:08:16] has gone very well.
[00:08:21] The most tragic accident in recent history happened in
[00:08:25] 2003, when a cargo plane crashed
[00:08:28] due to engine failure immediately after takeoff
[00:08:31] into the forest next to the airfield, and the
[00:08:34] captain and second pilot died. One pilot was seriously
[00:08:37] injured.
[00:08:40] An accident with a happy ending happened on March 18,
[00:08:44] 2010, when a Polish cargo plane with six
[00:08:48] people on board made an emergency landing on the ice
[00:08:51] of Lake Ülemiste. I was at that time
[00:08:55] at the security restricted area
[00:08:58] at the water pre-treatment plant on that hill. And at some point
[00:09:02] I heard that the sound of one plane's engine was not what it
[00:09:06] usually should be. And then I turned around and at that moment
[00:09:09] the plane was Ann 28. and it was
[00:09:13] like one, well, in the middle of the runway or about 10 meters
[00:09:17] high from the runway and didn't climb any higher and then it slowly started to tilt
[00:09:20] towards the left side of the runway and then
[00:09:24] further it was so low that it went behind that patch of
[00:09:27] forest, that behind that patch of forest I actually no longer
[00:09:30] saw it and well, I don't exactly remember what I did, I did two things, that I
[00:09:34] waited for smoke to come from there uh and
[00:09:37] secondly I started well I tried to call
[00:09:40] someone and
[00:09:42] and during that activity I suddenly saw that the plane had come out from behind
[00:09:46] that patch of forest and well, almost landed on that
[00:09:49] lake, so well, it was actually quite a
[00:09:53] shock and then after a short moment
[00:09:57] I saw that a man was walking around that
[00:10:00] plane with a briefcase in his hand, so it seemed so surreal, that
[00:10:04] and well, then more and more people came out of the plane and
[00:10:07] and well, then, well, in that sense it was like a
[00:10:11] good feeling, right, that
[00:10:13] well, the accident was
[00:10:16] avoided. However, in Tallinn, they also had to deal with hijacked
[00:10:19] planes. It's Saturday morning,
[00:10:22] February 20th, it's 12 o'clock. You, dear viewers, have
[00:10:25] a day off, but here at Tallinn Airport it's absolute
[00:10:29] hell. The first such incident in newly independent
[00:10:32] Estonia was on February 20,
[00:10:35] 1993, when a 27-year-old man
[00:10:39] on a plane en route from Tyumen
[00:10:41] to St. Petersburg took 76 passengers
[00:10:45] and six crew members hostage and wanted to fly
[00:10:49] to New York via Sweden. The hijacker,
[00:10:51] who was on the plane with his wife and infant daughter,
[00:10:55] threatened to blow everything up if his demands were not
[00:10:57] met. The plane landed in Tallinn
[00:11:00] for refueling and the airport's
[00:11:03] aviation security director Illar Vaks
[00:11:07] began negotiating with the hijacker. I saw that he had
[00:11:10] real
[00:11:12] grenades in his hands.
[00:11:16] Uh, hand grenades, uh, Russian military
[00:11:20] grenades. And both had
[00:11:23] their safety pins removed. "Now it continued like this, 'release the knots and
[00:11:27] there will be bangs,' by that time we already
[00:11:31] knew that he wasn't alone and he had
[00:11:34] his wife with a six-month-old child,
[00:11:38] so I said, 'you're not really such a murderer, are you, you want to kill
[00:11:41] your wife and child, you want to leave the Union,
[00:11:44] but not kill your wife and child,' and he
[00:11:48] disagreed with that, 'yes, I don't want to, but then it's like this, it's not, it doesn't happen
[00:11:52] so easily, you have to talk to Sweden and Eurocontrol
[00:11:56] has to give consent, so that such a situation doesn't
[00:11:59] arise where you take off and now fighters come,
[00:12:02] fighters come to you in the air and
[00:12:06] then he listened to that and yes, yes, yes, yes, yes
[00:12:09] and I thought, but what you
[00:12:13] have right now, you have them in your hands without safety pins, I can't say
[00:12:16] how many hours it will take to negotiate with Sweden, your fingers
[00:12:20] won't hold out that long and there will be
[00:12:24] a bang and you'll be without your wife and children, I'm not talking
[00:12:27] about the other people, the passengers, so
[00:12:30] I said, 'put them back,' that 'I can't, both my
[00:12:33] hands are full, give one to me,' and then
[00:12:36] like that, well then I went behind him and
[00:12:40] he gave me it, he gave you the grenade, what did you
[00:12:43] do then? I held it tight, while he
[00:12:47] secured the other one. Then I took the other one into
[00:12:50] my hand and gave it to him, he also secured that one. What
[00:12:54] does it feel like to be with two grenades, standing there
[00:12:57] on the plane?
[00:13:00] I thought a bit more broadly, I wasn't thinking about my
[00:13:03] life at that
[00:13:04] moment.
[00:13:08] Thanks to negotiations, 35 passengers were released
[00:13:12] in Tallinn. The plane flew to Sweden, where
[00:13:15] the hostage-taker surrendered
[00:13:17] to the authorities.
[00:13:32] Earthworm, it's hard to imagine that this tiny
[00:13:36] creature could somehow
[00:13:39] affect airfield operations, but oh, how
[00:13:42] it can.
[00:13:48] When there are heavy rains, earthworms also migrate and
[00:13:52] specifically on the runway, where they cross. the
[00:13:55] so-called path, but there are so many of them and if
[00:13:59] such a nice, nice lunch, dinner is
[00:14:03] served on the table, that is on the runway, then unfortunately
[00:14:07] birds notice it and they gather here
[00:14:10] and well, that can have very tragic
[00:14:13] consequences, primarily because
[00:14:16] if there are larger birds involved,
[00:14:19] black-headed gull, herring gull, well naturally we also apply our
[00:14:23] measures and for that we have various various means.
[00:14:27] To an uninformed person, this now resembles
[00:14:30] a UFO, slash, a Mars rover, but
[00:14:34] what is it actually? We call it a gas cannon
[00:14:37] system, that, uh, it can
[00:14:40] then be controlled remotely from a distance,
[00:14:43] that it consists of, you see here three pipes,
[00:14:47] which then each pipe then makes
[00:14:50] a bang,
[00:14:53] it scares away birds... very effectively and we have
[00:14:57] nine of them, there are also wheels underneath, so
[00:15:00] if necessary, we move them operationally to where the birds are currently
[00:15:04] gathering, but I have bad news, the bang was
[00:15:07] a minute ago, but the birds are back, swallows are flying around
[00:15:11] here, that's unfortunately how it is, yes, that we still live
[00:15:14] in nature and swallows are currently
[00:15:17] active, flying low, catching
[00:15:20] insects and well, swallows,
[00:15:23] due to their body mass, are then very
[00:15:27] light, small, so they are a lower risk for us, but the problem with them
[00:15:30] is that they don't respond to any deterrents at all, that they
[00:15:34] still do their activities and but...
[00:15:37] primarily by making their habitat unpleasant,
[00:15:40] we try to keep them away and with various
[00:15:43] methods, birds get used to them very easily,
[00:15:47] therefore we use many different, well, for example,
[00:15:50] pyrotechnics, gas cannon
[00:15:52] systems and plus then preventive measures,
[00:15:56] runway master 04, would like
[00:15:58] to perform.
[00:16:20] Which birds and how many of them fly, sit and
[00:16:24] nest near the airfield is precisely known by the
[00:16:27] airport ornithologist, and he must have an
[00:16:30] overview of the airfield within a 13-kilometer radius
[00:16:34] of winged creatures.
[00:16:38] "Within this 13 km radius
[00:16:41] area, there must be an overview of where the
[00:16:45] most important hotspots are, they don't always have to be nesting sites, they can be
[00:16:48] gathering places and today it can be
[00:16:52] said that there are no such hotspots in the immediate vicinity
[00:16:55] of Tallinn Airport that would be concerning, there have
[00:16:59] been gull colonies, there have been some of Estonia's largest
[00:17:02] black-headed gull colonies here
[00:17:05] a couple of hundred meters away, at one time there was an industrial building's
[00:17:09] roof, the roof had been unmaintained for decades, a nice
[00:17:12] grassy area had formed there, 5-6
[00:17:15] meter birches were already growing, meaning it was a perfect little
[00:17:19] island in the urban landscape, viewed from above,
[00:17:22] the closest safe nesting place to the lake, so a
[00:17:25] great choice by the black-headed gulls, very correct, if I were a
[00:17:28] black-headed gull, I would have nested
[00:17:30] there too.
[00:17:41] "This situation was concerning at the time, if there are still 1000
[00:17:45] pairs, 2000 adult birds, with 400 chicks,
[00:17:48] whose home turf is Tallinn
[00:17:51] Airport, where they teach their chicks to fly and to catch
[00:17:55] food, and the problem was solved by the fact that the building
[00:17:59] had to make way for new
[00:18:00] buildings.
[00:18:04] At the airfield, systematic work has been done for decades
[00:18:07] to reduce the number of birds and also animals, meaning that
[00:18:10] the fences extend underground, the abundance of
[00:18:13] foxes, raccoons and other ground predators
[00:18:17] is consciously kept lower here
[00:18:20] and this creates in some ways an interesting situation where
[00:18:24] birds find it more favorable and safer to operate here than outside
[00:18:28] the fence.
[00:18:32] Call to the coordination center:
[00:18:35] Hello, I am informing you of a security incident, a fox and an
[00:18:39] American mink entered the
[00:18:42] airport's restricted area through a hole
[00:18:45] in the fence, and most interestingly, they
[00:18:48] entered together, very
[00:18:50] suspicious.
[00:18:54] The food chain in nature is what makes
[00:18:57] animals and birds move, well, let's take first of all mice,
[00:19:01] small rodents, then smaller
[00:19:05] uh, birds,
[00:19:08] long-eared owls, various owls who then
[00:19:11] hunt them, in addition to mice, foxes
[00:19:15] also come, young lynxes also visit
[00:19:18] here, who happen to come to us, what do you
[00:19:22] do then, when animals are on the premises?
[00:19:25] With animals, we still try to
[00:19:28] well, get them
[00:19:32] out of here, direct them out,
[00:19:35] so then if a specific flock of birds is chased
[00:19:39] away, then the ground vehicle crews still wait until
[00:19:43] a safe passage is ensured for them, or if we are directing an animal
[00:19:46] off the airfield, then in the same way we momentarily stop
[00:19:50] air traffic.
[00:19:55] An official whose job duties also include leading
[00:19:58] animals off the airfield
[00:20:00] is the runway master. Runway master 04 Mike
[00:20:04] Beroon. Please, right of way
[00:20:07] to the runway.
[00:20:11] 04 proceed to bravo runway.
[00:20:14] Proceeding to bravo runway and runway master
[00:20:16] 04.
[00:20:25] Unauthorized entry into the maneuvering area is
[00:20:29] prohibited and we just asked for that permit and we
[00:20:32] got it.
[00:20:35] Does this mean that we are visible to flights, that
[00:20:38] our, I don't know, machine has a transponder or
[00:20:42] whatever, yes, all machines moving in the maneuvering
[00:20:45] area are required to have
[00:20:47] a transponder and air traffic control must, uh, see
[00:20:51] us regardless of the weather, even if
[00:20:55] there's very thick fog, if he doesn't have visual contact, then
[00:20:58] he still needs to know where vehicles are moving. Uh,
[00:21:02] Estonian traffic regulations apply to Estonian roads, what rules
[00:21:05] apply here? Well, uh, here we
[00:21:09] are allowed to uh drive on the runway up to
[00:21:12] 70 km/h, so sometimes perhaps there's a mistaken
[00:21:16] impression that it's a good open space here, where you can push the pedal as much as you want, but actually it's
[00:21:20] not. What does this runway master do and I understand
[00:21:23] that you actually have a very, very big responsibility.
[00:21:27] Uh, we are, well, so to speak, the eyes and ears
[00:21:30] of the airfield, that uh, we monitor
[00:21:34] that everything that is done here is
[00:21:38] according to the rules. What does it mean if, for example, someone
[00:21:41] spots a fox? What do you do then? Our job
[00:21:45] is to go to that place and
[00:21:49] and observe where it is moving or
[00:21:53] where it is located, whether it is a danger to aircraft, there was indeed
[00:21:56] a fox there once, yes, so then we, then we have no other choice
[00:22:00] but to go there. You are the man who can say that it is currently
[00:22:03] unsafe to land, uh, we have to organize,
[00:22:07] resolve, explain, planes don't
[00:22:09] land, uh, yes, uh, if it's
[00:22:13] not safe, then we do have the right to
[00:22:16] put planes on hold.
[00:22:20] And that is in our best interest, that we cannot allow
[00:22:23] any activities until it is completely
[00:22:27] safe. The runway master 04 cleared
[00:22:30] the runway from Golf
[00:22:31] to Alpha.
[00:22:41] Tallinn Airport's land area is enormous, about
[00:22:44] 380 hectares.
[00:22:47] Asphalt and concrete cover almost a million
[00:22:51] square meters, or about 100 hectares, and buildings
[00:22:53] account for approximately 100,000 square meters. When
[00:22:56] the terminal building, completed in 1980,
[00:23:00] became too small, a major renovation was undertaken, which
[00:23:04] ended in 1998,
[00:23:06] and immediately plans for its
[00:23:10] expansion began.
[00:23:13] Why this bold idea came about was that the Estonian economy was actually
[00:23:16] doing very well and people really wanted to start traveling.
[00:23:20] The number of passengers at that time was about 550,000 and
[00:23:23] the terminal had a capacity of 1.3 million, so it could
[00:23:26] accommodate three times more people, and since the process of
[00:23:29] expanding the airport terminal is very time-consuming, it
[00:23:33] definitely takes five years, so it was clear that it was high time to start thinking
[00:23:37] about expanding it, so I remember when I first mentioned it,
[00:23:41] it was very hard for the council to believe
[00:23:44] that it could be a real idea, actually
[00:23:48] we reached one million passengers in 2005,
[00:23:51] that's seven years after
[00:23:55] 1998, so it was absolutely the last moment to start thinking about
[00:23:58] the expansion, and two million passengers came about seven
[00:24:01] years later, so the process has
[00:24:05] been fast. 20 years ago, yes, indeed, what
[00:24:09] we see here right now, this terminal with its bridges,
[00:24:13] we called it a finger at that time,
[00:24:16] it didn't exist, we designed it. that was the
[00:24:20] main building, which you can perhaps see a little bit from there, so that's
[00:24:23] how it
[00:24:25] was.
[00:24:28] The passenger terminal, as we know it today, was completed
[00:24:31] in 2008 and was designed
[00:24:34] to serve approximately 2.6 million passengers, although
[00:24:36] it already handles three and a half
[00:24:39] million people annually.
[00:24:43] It is time for expansion again. If today the
[00:24:46] passenger terminal is 35,000 square meters, then we are expanding
[00:24:50] it by 18,000 square meters, which is half,
[00:24:54] and then half of that 35,000 square meters
[00:24:57] will be reconstructed. This area
[00:25:00] between the current terminal and the tram terminal, that
[00:25:03] parking lot, we will completely fill it and
[00:25:07] a new arrivals baggage claim area
[00:25:10] will be built there, then we are expanding
[00:25:14] the border control area, as it has become too small for us today, we will
[00:25:18] also double its size and add two aircraft
[00:25:22] stands. Everyone predicts that the number of passengers
[00:25:25] will double in the next 20 years and we can
[00:25:29] expect this in Estonia too, that if we now expect five
[00:25:31] million passengers by 2030 or move towards five
[00:25:35] million passengers, then growth will continue
[00:25:39] from there and for that, passenger terminals will need to be expanded again, we are actually today, where we
[00:25:42] start the passenger terminal expansion here, we are actually
[00:25:45] already planning the next
[00:25:48] passenger terminal expansion, which will
[00:25:52] start around 2033-34, the
[00:25:55] expansion and improvement of airports, that is, uh,
[00:25:59] it's a continuous process, it will never end, because
[00:26:03] we have so much infrastructure that when we finish something in one place, then in another
[00:26:07] the thing starts to fall apart already and it needs to be fixed again
[00:26:10] back. Tallinn Airport, like the city of Tallinn, yes, is never
[00:26:13] finished.
[00:26:16] And then, in my opinion, the main limitation that exists is perhaps such an
[00:26:20] international situation, that, uh, that today it is relatively
[00:26:23] sharp, let's say the big business advantages that our airport had,
[00:26:26] let's say East flights, which notoriously go over Russian
[00:26:30] territory, they absolutely do not exist. "At that time we thought
[00:26:33] that this was a business model success that could actually materialize, someday
[00:26:37] it will come, when, it is hard for me to say, because the earth is still round and flying over the North
[00:26:41] Pole is the most direct route from west to east, isn't it, so in that
[00:26:45] sense it is a great advantage that could be, but I still believe that at
[00:26:48] some point we will also have long-haul flights, which in my opinion it is a pity that they are not in Tallinn
[00:26:51] until now. Considering the population of Estonia, considering Estonia's
[00:26:55] geopolitical location,
[00:26:58] the demand for air travel that we are ready for could be somewhere around
[00:27:01] 80..." 10 million
[00:27:03] but
[00:27:07] in the same way as for the growth of passenger numbers, the
[00:27:11] airport must also be ready for the possibility that none of them
[00:27:14] are there, just as happened in
[00:27:17] 2020, although such dead silence
[00:27:21] as there was then, no one could have
[00:27:24] imagined.
[00:27:37] "It was April 2020, I
[00:27:39] think, we had some flights available, but they weren't on all
[00:27:43] days, every other day and I came
[00:27:46] to the terminal and since there were no passengers, all the shops were closed,
[00:27:49] the cafes were closed, there was no one
[00:27:52] in the terminal, but such background music plays and then
[00:27:55] suddenly the loudspeakers announce, esteemed
[00:27:58] passengers, do not leave your baggage unattended, unattended baggage."
[00:28:02] will be removed by airport staff and it was like something you
[00:28:06] have seen in apocalyptic movies, that such a thing exists, but
[00:28:09] well, you didn't think you would ever end up in such a place. And when
[00:28:13] Tallinn Airport
[00:28:16] serve over 3000 passengers a month,
[00:28:20] then in April 2020, I remember, we
[00:28:23] served 300 passengers in one month, today we serve
[00:28:27] the same number of passengers in four hours and nothing happened here in the terminal for more than half of the days,
[00:28:30] and and. in March we weren't even allowed to come here, then
[00:28:34] there was a complete so-called lockdown, and no one, not even
[00:28:37] government structures, knew what was allowed and what wasn't, there was no
[00:28:41] manual, no regulation, nothing, everyone figured it out on the fly
[00:28:44] how to proceed in this situation, and well, from the company's
[00:28:48] perspective, that meant that most employees had to be sent home,
[00:28:51] some operations had to be stopped, but you didn't know when it would
[00:28:55] start again, so, well, how many employees should be laid off, and maybe it
[00:28:58] will open again, this is, this is training that money can't buy.
[00:29:02] so how to quickly cut all your costs and how to optimize
[00:29:06] your operations so that you don't go bankrupt, because basically the cash flow collapsed.
[00:29:10] In that sense, Tallinn was in a very good, and I would even say lucky
[00:29:14] position, that we have such a partner on our territory as Magnetic
[00:29:17] MRO, who is able
[00:29:20] to maintain these parked planes that were all parked here,
[00:29:24] well, our entire terminal side was full of parked planes, all our parking spaces were full
[00:29:27] of parked planes, then we started parking them on the taxiway, because
[00:29:31] there were no more parking spaces, we at least got parking fees, work was done
[00:29:35] in Magnetic, they paid us for the hangars and actually, on the financial
[00:29:38] side, it still helped to maintain a so-called minimum
[00:29:42] income for the airport, so those parked planes
[00:29:45] were worth their weight in gold for us during covid. One can only imagine how little
[00:29:58] work there was for baggage handlers then.
[00:30:02] when suitcases could be counted on the fingers of one or two
[00:30:06] hands.
[00:30:10] Hello. So. Hold him gently.
[00:30:14] We hold him gently.
[00:30:27] Legends say that during COVID, the wind howled
[00:30:30] here, there was little baggage.
[00:30:32] and every suitcase was handled personally, how was it really,
[00:30:36] you were working, actually it was like this, that here
[00:30:40] the employees were howling, those who were still working, let's say,
[00:30:44] for one suitcase there were four employees here, is it true
[00:30:47] that in your work there are many steps and a lot of
[00:30:50] physical work, steps generally come to about
[00:30:54] 25,000 in summer, less in winter, obviously, because there are fewer flights,
[00:30:57] in terms of tonnage, if...