Finnish airline Finnair suspends Helsinki-Tartu flights for a month

Finnish airline Finnair suspends Helsinki-Tartu flights for a month. Photo: Margus Ansu

The Finnish airline Finnair has decided to suspend its daily flights from Helsinki to the southern Estonian university town of Tartu for a month.

«Finnair will suspend its daily flights to Tartu, Estonia, from April 29 to May 31, so that an alternative approach solution that does not require a GPS signal can be put in place at Tartu airport,» the airline said in a press release.

Last weekend, two Finnair planes that took off from Helsinki were unable to land at Tartu airport due to a GPS equipment failure. The flight followed the same pattern on both nights. The plane took off from Helsinki at 11:55 p.m., but did not land in Tartu at 12:40 a.m. as planned, but had to fly back to Finland due to a disruption. The pilot informed the passengers that there was a problem with the GPS equipment.

On the night between Friday and Saturday, the aircraft turned back to Helsinki while over Paide, while the second time it had reached the vicinity of Poltsamaa before turning back. For Tartu airport, both instances meant that no plane could depart from there in the direction of Helsinki on either morning.