Nordica Airlines will stop operating direct flights from Tallinn to Kyiv, Trondheim, Vilnius, Copenhagen, and Vienna at the end of October this year because of unprofitability. The carrier will reduce its number of flights to three – from the capital of Estonia to Warsaw, Stockholm, and Brussels – from winter 2019/2020, the CFTS portal reports, citing the avianews portal.
The airline has promised to book other flights for the passengers that have already bought tickets for canceled flights or reimburse them.
All the commercial risks on these routes will be borne by the Polish airline, LOT, which will handle ticket sales and customer service from July 1, while Nordica will operate flights for the LOT airline.
“Strong competition and oversupply of seats on Tallinn Lennart Meri routes do not allow us to operate profitably today. In order to maintain readiness and our ability to provide the necessary regional air connections to Estonia in the future, Nordica will continue to provide air services and LOT will deal with routes and ticket sales and will carry the commercial risk," Nordica board member Kristi Ojakäär said in a statement.
The carrier intends to focus on operation of flights for other airlines. As a result, Nordica expects to maintain the size of its aircraft fleet and number of personnel.
The airline is not ruling out the possibility of resuming operation of its own flights in the future if the competitive situation improves.
Nordica currently operates regular flights from Tallinn to Kyiv’s Boryspil airport.
As the CFTS portal reported earlier, Nordica was the largest airline operating out of the Tallinn airport, accounting for 23% of the total number of passengers.
It was later reported that the Estonian government was considering selling its shares in the Nordica company.
