Sale of Nordica aircraft held back by technical checks and negotiations
Although a letter of intent was signed in April with a potential buyer for the aircraft previously operated by Nordica, no sales agreement has been concluded to date. In addition to the time required for negotiations, the aircraft must undergo technical inspections before the transaction can proceed.
In the second half of May, the Ministry of Climate announced that the sale of used aircraft from the state-owned company Transpordi Varahaldus (TVH), which had been operated by the national airline Nordica, would be postponed to June. Originally, the deal had been expected to close in May.
Now that the first week of June has passed, a specific sale date still has not been set.
"A letter of intent has been signed with the buyer for the purpose of conducting sales negotiations, and talks are ongoing. Both parties intend and hope to finalize the sale agreement by the end of June," Sander Salmu, deputy secretary general for mobility at the Ministry of Climate, told ERR.
He attributed the delay to the time-consuming nature of negotiating the sale of seven aircraft.
"In addition to agreeing on all contractual terms and documentation, the buyer must also carry out a pre-transaction technical inspection of the aircraft. This, in turn, requires the planes to be brought out of long-term storage — TVH preserved the aircraft over the winter in accordance with all manufacturer requirements — and so on," Salmu said.
According to the undersecretary, the sale price cannot be disclosed prior to signing the contract, in the interest of the sales process.
Salmu emphasized that the state will not incur any additional expenses due to the delay. He noted that Transpordi Varahaldus pays Tallinn Airport for parking and maintenance of the aircraft, but those costs are significantly lower than the potential proceeds expected from a thorough and carefully managed sales process.
"Since TVH owns the aircraft in question, there are no additional leasing costs during the sale period," Salmu said.
TVH's unaudited loss in the first quarter of the current financial year was €480,000. The main reason, according to the undersecretary, was the termination of long-term lease agreements with Nordic Aviation Group AS, which declared bankruptcy over the winter.
Transpordi Varahaldus owns seven Bombardier CRJ900NG passenger aircraft, each with a seating capacity of 88. ERR previously reported that the top purchase offer came from an international company operating in the aviation sector.
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Editor: Karin Koppel, Marcus Turovski
