On Wednesday, SAS announced their domestic Swedish service contract with Nordic Aviation Group will be terminated at the end of October. In addition, SAS flights between Tallinn and Stockholm may decrease.

At a press conference on Friday morning, Althuis said the contract was unprofitable. But it was ended by SAS, not Nordica.

Althuis said the company has stabilized its cash flow and is preparing for privatization. It operated profitably during the summer months of this year, and this trend is expected to continue in September.

"We are working hard on a plan to ensure that we can get as many new customers as possible for our aircraft by November 1," said Althuis, noting that in addition to Vietnam's low-cost airline Bamboo Airways, for whom one Nordica aircraft is flying, a new use has recently been found for another aircraft.

The company's new partner is the Norwegian company Widerøe, and Althuis said a contract has already been signed,

"We need to find new activities for the other aircraft. Given the seasonality of this industry, it is likely that these new contracts will be found outside our current area of operation, outside of Europe, as the European market is very slow during the winter," Althuis said.

Nordica's management team will present new plans about the airline's future by October 15.

Nordica board member Sander Salmu stressed the termination of cooperation with SAS was purely SAS's decision. It was very unexpected to the board, but Nordica's situation has improved significantly over the past year, he added.

The SAS agreement led to a €22 million loss for Nordic. Salmu said this has been confirmed by external auditors and a special inspection.

"It became clear that the contracts signed in the first half of 2023 cannot be serviced profitably at the agreed prices," said Salmu. "Based on the special audit report, a criminal investigation has also been launched against the previous company management on the same grounds, to determine whether the contract signing caused harm to the company."

When asked how likely it is that Nordica will go bankrupt before the end of the year, Althuis replied that the main focus now is to find work for the planes and that this issue is currently being addressed with the support of all partners.

He said the current market situation is very good.

Salmu also noted that the company has proven in the summer that it can fly both in terms of flight quality and financially. Now the situation is being taken step by step.

"We will look at the plan presented on October 15 and we can make the next decision," he said. "The company has been working very intensively to find new customers."

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