Ministry and Nordic Aviation say no insider information at play
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication as well as the Nordic Aviation Group (NAG) said on Tuesday that no insider information was involved in the Nordic Aviation Academy taking over pilot training. The ministry left the question of conflicts of interest unanswered.
As ETV’s “Aktuaalne Kaamera” newscast reported on Tuesday, the Nordic Aviation Academy became a cooperation partner of the Nordic Aviation Group last year because they were able to make the best offer for the training of pilots for the Bombardier CRJ aircraft.
In response to statements by pilots reported by ERR News on Monday, Nordic Aviation Academy’s founder and former owner Märten Vaikmaa said that the decision to phase out the Embraers and continue only with Bombardier aircraft was made a year before government support of Estonian Air was declared illegal, and that this wasn’t confidential or inside information.
ERR News' question whether or not Mr Vaikmaa’s involvement with both Estonian Air’s supervisory council and the Nordic Aviation Academy at the time constituted a conflict of interest, submitted to the ministry on Friday, remains unanswered.
The question whether or not Toomas Uibo's role as a member of the Nordic Aviation Group’s supervisory board while performing services for the Nordic Aviation Academy was commented by NAG’s management on Friday. NAG’s position is that as Mr Uibo isn’t involved in the daily business of the company, there is no conflict of interest. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication left this question unanswered as well.
Approached by “Aktuaalne Kaamera”, NAG’s Erik Sakkov as well as the ministry’s Deputy Secretary General and former chairman of Estonian Air’s supervisory board Ahti Kuningas commented on the choice of names of the involved companies, finding nothing noteworthy in the fact that “nordic” was an attribute that occurred frequently.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn