Prime Minister Ansip announced the renaming of Tallinn Airport after Lennart Meri

Tallinn Airport, 19 September 2008 – Today, at the festive opening of the extension of Tallinn Airport, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip announced the renaming of the airport after President Lennart Meri.

At the festive opening of the extension to Tallinn Airport, the Prime Minister said that out of respect for President Lennart Meri and his work, the decision was made to give the name of Lennart Meri to Tallinn Airport. “Welcome to Lennart Meri Airport in Tallinn!” said the head of the government at the end of his speech.

According to Andrus Ansip, the main work of President Lennart Meri lied in helping to bring the Republic of Estonia back to the world map. In his speech, Ansip recalled that Lennart Meri assumed the position of the President in the era of the full reorganisation of the old way of thinking. President Meri called on us to not accept the Soviet mentality or the service culture or infrastructure dating back to 1980. “But this is only history now. History that today’s reality is born from,” said Prime Minister Andrus Ansip. According to the head of the government, today’s reality is also that Estonia has joined the Schengen visa area, which has changed the logic of movement and operation within the airport.

At the estimate of Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, a lot has changed in the airport, and he was sure that President Lennart Meri would like that.

Officially, Tallinn Airport will be named after Lennart Meri on 29 March 2009, on the 80th anniversary of the birth of the President.