Estonian Air to Reduce Flights, Fleet and Personnel
Estonian Air's outgoing supervisory board chairman Erkki Raasuke said the company will streamline its operations and cut down on expenses in coming months.
"This means withdrawing from unprofitable routes, focusing on the main routes, as well as fewer flights, airplanes and employees,“ Raasuke said at a press conference on Wednesday.
CFO Wade Stokes said the airline will shut down its Tartu, Helsinki and Joensuu routes and forgo plans to open routes to Göteborg and London this winter. Other routes will also be considered for closure, he said.
Raasuke said the company will continue with nine to 11 routes. "These are destinations that have been worked up, which have the greatest business necessity and which are the most important for ensuring flight connections for Estonia,“ he said.
The chairman said it would still take major funding to optimize the company's fleet, because it currently has unreasonably many types of aircraft.
"The fact that we have four or even five types of airplanes is a huge burden for us. This involves various spare parts warehouses and different procedures,“ Raasuke said, adding that companies with around 250 planes typically only use one type of airplane.
After reporting a nine-month loss of 20.2 million euros today, Estonian Air sacked CEO Tero Taskila and the supervisory board members stepped down.