Review of Air Baltic flight Tallinn → Tampere in Economy

This routing

ALL ROUTING of 2023

ABOUT AIRLINE, AIRCRAFT AND ROUTE

Airline history and info: 
Air Baltic is a Latvian airline that was founded in 1995. It operates flights to over 60 destinations in Europe, the Middle East, and the CIS region. The airline's main hub is Riga International Airport, and it also has secondary hubs in Tallinn and Vilnius. Air Baltic has a fleet of over 40 aircraft, in the fleet there is 47 Airbus A220-300. The airline has won several awards, including the World Travel Awards for Europe's Leading Airline and the Baltic States' Leading Airline.

Aircraft info:  
Registration: YL-ABA
Aircraft: Airbus A220-300 - Type Code: BCS3
Serial Number (MSN): 55121 - Age (JUN 2021): 2 Years - Mode S: 502D3F
Airline: Air Baltic - Code: BT / BTI
Operator: Air Baltic - Code: BT / BTI
Country Of Registration: Latvia
Delivery Date to the Nyxair: 25/06/2021
Previous owners: No previous owners, only Air Baltic

Route Info:
BT1651is a route from Tallinn Airport (TLL) to Tampere Pirkkala Airport (TMP). The flight is operated by an Airbus A220-300 aircraft. The flight duration is approximately 45 minutes. 

ARRIVING TO THE AIRPORT, NAVIGATING AT THE AIRPORT

So hello and Welcome to this FR. I hope you enjoying reading this and let's get started. 

After arriving at Tallinn Lennart Meri Airport I got the first picture. As you can see there is a little bit of snow. 

After we went inside we got our boarding passes printed out for this flight. I don't remember how crowded the airport was but I believe it was. 

My favorite picture in Tallinn airport. 

After that, it was time to head to the airside.

Apron. 

Security took about 6 minutes. By the way, it was the last time for me to pass the old regular security here at Tallinn because the security operator changed and got some new machines so next time I don't need to take out my electronics and I can carry water bottles through security. 

Perfect rating

After that, I did a little shopping in the duty-free and then I went and confirmed my gate. And yes that 15:45 Amsterdam is ours but more of that later. 

Frequent readers of my reports (Ik that I don't have many reports) know that this is my favorite thing at the Tallinn Airport. 

And of course, I need do say hello to the fishes.

And Estonian's only Subway is located here, at the Tallinn Airport.

And our gate today is Olympic Gate. 

I was hoping for the inaugural flight to take place but it was not. I think the reason why it was not an inaugural flight was that it continued to Amsterdam. 

So let's talk more about that flight. This flight is Tallinn-Tampere-Amsterdam. flight and that means it will continue towards Amsterdam. So passengers going to Amsterdam are not getting off at the Tampere.

After that, I decided to use the clean toilets like they are. Then I went to a coffee shop called Põhjala Deli, which is a nice small coffee shop. 

I got myself a Rhubarb and cream Danish pastry for 4,50€. I think it should be a little bit cheaper like 3€ but it was tasty. Next time I will try out Tallinn's Airport restaurant called Take-Off.

After that, I decided and explore my gate a little bit. There were photos of the 1980 Olympic games, there was that game where you can test your reaction speed, it was like a challenge to do over Gerd Kanter's score. Gerd Kanter was Olympic Champion in discus throw in 2008. And info about Olympic gold medalists from Estonia. 

I think my best on that game was like 45 or something. 

About 40 minutes later our boarding started so time to see where is my BP.

BOARDING

Another Air Baltic A220 next to us will go to Riga in 10 minutes. 

Quick cockpit picture and my favorite picture. 

I had a friendly welcome from the crew. 

My seat for the next 30 minutes. 

And my view for the next 30 minutes. 

I like these small over head screens. 

And the Finnair ATR 72 (To Helsinkk) having push-back (?) not sure what to call this.

TAXI, TAKE OFF, CLIMPING

After that, the purser came to BA and welcomed us on board, The captain came to BA and announced our flight to be 30 minutes. 
Then we took a short taxi to rwy 08 and took off, climb out went smoothly, with no turbulence. 

Overall I did not take any photos for that topic. 

Enjoy the video of take off.

CATERING, IN-FLIGHT ENTEIRMENT, CRUSISING AND CABIN

After the seatbelt sign was turned off I took that photo of a cloud sea. 

So the seat offers a seat, tray table, armrest, small overhead screen, reading lamp, crew calling button, and AC.

The tray table is a bit small.

The seat pocket contains an in-flight magazine, the menu/shopping (3 in 1), the safety card, and the air sickness bag.

So, the crew started their catering service but as we were on the row behind the wing it took about 6 minutes to reach us before lets did a quick loo review in the galley.

Loo looks clean and has things that you need. On the galley, there are 2 loos. One on the left and one on the right.

Cabin turning cruising

And we are somewhere in Finland and I got myself a blueberry muffin.

Over Finland or a 1000 lake county

DESCENDING, LANDING, TAXING

So it is time to start our descend to Tampere Pirkkala airport but where are our pre-ordered meals? I had a quick chat with the Purser and it came out that meals are going to be handed out on the next text to Amsterdam but we are getting them once we de-board. 

Landing was smooth and again no photos were taken. Passengers going to Amsterdam are not getting off and can stay on the plane. 

Our Scheduled arrival time was 16:30 and our arrival was 16;21 so no delay.

Enjoy the landing video :)

DE-BOARDING

Sunset from the plane window

Once we reached the front we got our meal and exited and as always we took traditional fuselage shoot.

Bye bye, see you in 6h YL-ABA.

Entrance to arrival area

We were some of the few to get off at Tampere.

And when you fly in or out from any Finlands airport you see at least one Moomin-themed thing and TMP is no exception. 

And these chairs and Moomin picture on back ground.

And the baggage claim area is not so busy. And of course again Moomin picture behind. 

Quick explaining. If you don't know what is Moomin, then there is a quick copy from Wikipedia: The Moomins (Swedish: mumintrollen) are the central characters in a series of novels, short stories, picture books, and a comic strip by Finnish writer and illustrator Tove Jansson, originally published in Swedish by Schildts in Finland.

And to the city area. 

But our FR is not over yet, now it is time to eat our pre-ordered meals. 

I chose that because it was only 1 of 2 meals available for that flight. 

The main course was cold salmon in mustard sauce and roasted and marinated vegetables and black bread next it. 

To be honest I did not think that I would like it but it was very tasty. 

For the drink, you had two choices: Orange juice or white wine. I chose orange juice.

I liked it more than the one that is served at my school lunch counter.

And for dessert, there was homemade cheesecake. 

It was pretty tasty, I would love to have a second one as well but sadly it was not possible. 

That meal cost with orange juice 12.99€ and with white wine it cost 15.99€

And now it is time to go and spot our aircraft departing. 

Wave from the pilots :)

And there is a bus that will take you from the airport to the city center, line 103. 

Thanks for following around and I hope to see you in the next FR 

OUR ROUTE FROM FR24

FLIGHT INFO

Scheduled Departure: 15:45 - Actual Departure: 15:50 - Scheduled Arrival: 16:30
Status: Landed 16:21 - Flight time: 00:32
Airline: Air Baltic - Callsign: BTI1561
Flight Number: BT1561
Equipment: BCS3 (YL-ABA) - Aircraft: Airbus A220-300