An Estonian-Finnish joint venture on May 5 launched a helicopter shuttle between the Estonian and Finnish capitals, a service it said will further enhance tourism and bilateral business.

A spokesman for the company, Copterlines, said two 12-seat Sikorsky S-76C+ helicopters will make 24 flights a day, five days a week. There are already daily airline flights to and from Helsinki and Tallinn, and half a dozen ferries ply the Baltic Sea route. But Tonis Lepp, the Estonian manager of Copterlines, said speed would be the helicopters' main advantage. The aircraft take off from city-center heliports and take just 18 minutes to make the 85-kilometer journey across the Gulf of Finland; check-in and customs procedures have also been simplified, Lepp said. Ferries usually run overnight, and several Tallinn-Helsinki catamarans take an hour or more to make the trip. Airplane flights, considering time required to get to airports and into the city centers, can take several hours. Lepp said Copterlines was targeting businessmen who needed to visit their Estonian- or Finnish-based companies frequently. Tourists and diplomats would also be among an expected 30,000 helicopter passengers a year, he said. A one-way ticket costs about 150 dollars. Before the shuttle could go ahead, an agreement allowing only the national airlines—Finnair and Estonian Air—to fly the Tallinn-Helsinki route had to be changed. Amendments permitting the helicopter flights were signed in April.