Quickthink

I remember some years ago when word spread that finally Tartu airport would open for commercial flights. It was long overdue. But there was a problem and it was a serious one. The market is small and needs encouragement before flying in and out of Tartu would become routine. Hmm … a bit like the Tallinn airport in the old days (if anyone still remembers). Above all, it meant aggressive marketing. Everyone agreed at the time.

Flash forward to 2012. It is a bit sad to see this article from ERR that marketing has been, shall we say, not as effective as one might have hoped for. This quote in particular caught my eye

Apparently many people have yet to be introduced to the flight possibilities in Tartu

What? “… many people have yet to be introduced … “! Keep in mind that this comment is made years after the airport was opened. YEARS!

Tartu has recently opened its airport and is starting to market the service. Here is a link to the airport, and this is a link to a Wikipedia entry.  Due to our location (at the far northeast perimeter of Europe) we need this service very much. But will it work?

We have a few routes on tap now. Air Baltic provides service to and from Riga, and Estonian Air will soon do a Stockholm route. But will these be viable? The reasons for concern stare one in the face. Small town. Economic downturn. Expensive. Risk. Risk. Risk.

I was interested, therefore, in this article from NYT on experiences of small towns in the US that are trying to hold onto air routes. Some communities seem willing to buy the risk to guarantee the service.

Interesting.

FOLLOW - The recent opening of the Tartu airport has led Indrek Mustimets to open a new page on the city’s web platform called “From Tartu to the world – from the world to Tartu”. QT will track comments made there about the pleasures of connecting.

Fred Wilson is a New York VC on a short trip to Europe (Paris, Stockholm and Slovenia) where he is mixing business and fun. Sad to say, he is not coming to Estonia. He is in Stockholm now, and he wrote in his blog

Stockholm’s a bit out of the way (from London or Paris)

Hmmm …. If Stockholm is a bit out of the way, Tartu is ….

My point — location matters. Tartu was born long, long ago to take advantage of an east/west exchange route that went across the big lake. First the exchange was in goods. Tartu was the logical place along the river for a drop off point, and it thrived. Later, when the university was in its glory years, the exchange was in ideas. But this peaked out in the 19th Century.

These days, the east/west exchange is pretty much dead. Both Estonians and Russians look west, but with very different interests. The problem for us here in Tartu is that instead of being in the center of things (the east/west exchange), we are way, way out on the periphery of Europe.

From a strategic perspective, we need to find our way back to a center point so that we can add value. Or, despite our new airport, we will remain somewhat isolated.

Michael the Irish Designer has forwarded me the following news story, first reported in Baltic Business News- Estonian Air may start flights between Tartu and Stockholm this autumn. Even more interesting, apparently there is a meeting todayat  14 at Atlantis to discuss this.

Wonder why I didn’t know about the meeting?

Thanks Michael! BTW, may be needing a logo soon…