After the end of Estonian Air, the Estonian government founded Nordica in 2015. The new national carrier has been steadily expanding ever since. It currently offers year-round flights to eight European destinations. But that will end on 26th October. Flights from Tallinn to Copenhagen, Kiev, Trondheim, Vienna and Vilnius will be discontinued.
The routes are not profitable, Nordica said in a press release. The routes to Stockholm, Brussels and Warsaw will be taken over by the Polish partner Lot as of 1st July. «The strong competition and the oversupply of seats on the routes from Tallinn do not allow us to work profitably today», says Nordica manager Kristi Ojakäär. Lot will therefore take care of routes and ticket sales in the future and bear the commercial risk.
Trondheim the only route without competition
Nordica will make sure that they remain ready to offer routes from Estonia again in the future, the airline continued. It is not clear what ist going to happen with the six seasonal routes Nordica is offering, including the flights to Munich. However, a continuation would be a surprise.
In recent months, Air Baltic, a strong competitor, has greatly expanded its service from Tallinn. The only Nordica route without competition was from Tallinn to Trondheim. On the other omitted routes, Nordica had to compete against airlines such as Lot, SAS, Wizz Air and Norwegian.
Regional Jet operates for several airlines
Nordica is a virtual airline. The majority of its flights are operated by Regional Jet, which is 51 percent owned by the parent company Nordic Aviation Group and 49 percent by Lot. Apart from Nordica, Regional Jet also flies for other airlines such as SAS or Air Serbia.
