Tallinn Airport (, ) or Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport () is the largest airport in Estonia, which serves as a hub for the national airline Nordica, as well as the secondary hub for AirBaltic, cargo airline Airest and LOT Polish Airlines. It was also the home base of the now defunct national airline Estonian Air. Tallinn Airport is open to both domestic and international flights. It is located southeast of the centre of Tallinn on the eastern shore of Lake Ülemiste. It was formerly known as Ülemiste Airport. The airport has a single asphalt/concrete runway, 08/26, that is and large enough to handle wide-bodied aircraft such as the Boeing 747, six taxiways and seventeen terminal gates. Since 29 March 2009 the airport is officially known as Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport, in honour of one of the leaders of the Estonian independence movement and the second President of Estonia Lennart Meri. History Early development Prior to the establishment of the present airport in Ülemiste area, Lasnamäe Airfield was the primary airport of Tallinn, serving as a base for Aeronaut airline. After Aeronaut went bankrupt in 1928, air service was continued by Deruluft, which used Nehatu instead, from the centre of Tallinn. The first seaplane harbour on the shores of Lake Ülemiste was built 1928 to 1929 in order to serve Finnish seaplanes. The use of this harbour ended in World War II. On 26 March 1929 Riigikogu passed an expropriation act in order to establish a public airport. 10 ha of land was expropriated from Dvigatel joint-stock company and another 22 ha was expropriated from descendants of Vagner. 10 million sents were paid to land-owners as indemnity. Land leveling and renovation works took another 5 million sents. The building of Tallinn Airport started on 16 November 1931, and the first test landing was commenced by captain Reissar piloting Estonian Air Force Avro 594 Avian, tail number 120. The airport was opened officially on 20 September 1936, although it had been operational a good while before the official opening - LOT Polish Airlines, which commenced its first passenger flight from Tallinn on 18 August 1932 with Fokker F.VIIb/3m from Lasnamäe Airfield, later relocated the flights to Tallinn Airport and in 1935 the airport had 6 arrivals and departures on average every day. In April 1935 a ramp for seaplanes was built on a shore of Lake Ülemiste, together with a small arch