"Nordica is planning to acquire two aircraft  — one CRJ900 and one ATR 72  — in the next few months," Nordica Marketing and Communications Director Toomas Uibo told BNS on Wednesday. "According to current plans, we want these aircraft to be in operation before the switch to the summer schedule."

The ATR 72 is a twin-engine turboprop manufactured by the French company ATR. CRJ900 is a short and medium range jet manufactured by Bombardier.

According to Uibo, Regional Jet started out in 2017 with six CRJ aircraft, expanding to 16 of its own aircraft by the end of December, including 11 CRJ aircraft and five ATR 72 aircraft. He noted that the company also has a long-term wet lease Embraer 145 operating on its network, meaning that this year, Regional Jet will own a fleet of 18 aircraft.

"Both units, the CRJ900 as well as the ATR72, will be aircraft leased by us, with our own crews," he noted. "This spring, we will launch three new routes out of Groningen Airport. These aircraft will in part be supporting growth in our export services on external markets. In Estonia, meanwhile, this will create the capability for us to respond promptly to potential technical problems."

According to the Nordica spokesperson, the company uses six to seven aircraft to operate flights out of Tallinn, and the company's larger volumes arise from export services sold in Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Regional Jet OÜ was founded in 2015 as an independent company to operate flights out of Tallinn after the bankruptcy of the Estonian state-owned airline Estonian Air. Currently, Regional Jet supplies wet lease services to other companies. Regional Jet is 51 percent owned by Nordic Aviation Group AS (Nordica) and 49 percent by Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A. (LOT).