TALLINN — Estonia’s troubled national airline Estonian Air has announced an expansion of its flight volumes and destinations despite a steep decline in passengers.
The carrier has implemented a recovery plan in the wake of its disastrous results from the 2008 fiscal year, when losses trebled to 170.5 million krooni (€10.9 million).
Estonian Air is expanding its flight routes and volumes despite the crisis.
“In spite of the tough economic environment and the fast changes in the market, the supervisory council is expecting better results in the future,” Estonian Air President Andrus Aljas said in a company statement when confirming last year’s results. “These will be achieved by realizing a cost-cutting plan and widening the revenue base.”
Estonian Air began the year with considerably less flights per month than last year, in line with current market conditions. The airline began turning this around in the summer months, though. June was -26 percent versus last year, but July was only -21 percent.
But even when factoring in the reduction of flights out of Lennart Meri Tallinn International Airport, Estonian Air increased its market share and is launching new routes.
New routes, online initiatives
Estonian Air has announced today that it would be increasing its schedule between Tallinn and Vilnius from five to eight times per week.
This followed news earlier this week that flights from Tartu to Stockholm have now commenced and the Aug. 12 reopening of the Tallinn-Helsinki route.
Shareholders looking to sell, not invest
However, Aljas’ plan doesn’t mean the company share the fate of Lithuania’s flyLAL. Recent statements from Estonian Air shareholders are far from bullish about the airline’s prospects.
The main shareholder is the SAS Group with 49 percent — they have formally announced that they would like to sell their stake.
Meanwhile the Estonian state controls 34 percent. Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts has said the government is not planning to invest further in the company.
It’s good there are some quality news items around now – language-wise, at least. The next step is to become more aware of the local economy and not to report things based on company press releases that have been rewritten in a better prose.
E.g. the Estonian Air story – a traditional closure of summer routes (Barcelona, Rome, Paris) has taken place and naturally the planes will not remain idle but some flights are added for the winter schedule.
So one shouldn’t make a big deal of the new routes without mentioning the fact that others were closed.