Nordica scraps commercial flights, to focus on PSO and charter

Since October 27, 2019, Nordica, Estonian state-owned airline, is no longer operating flights to (and from) Vilnius (Lithuania), Copenhagen (Denmark), Trondheim (Norway), Vienna (Austria), and Kyiv (Ukraine). The flights are taken over by LOT Polish Airlines and now are offered with a stopover in Warsaw (Poland).

The five routes were proved unprofitable and are suspended until the competitive situation improves, the airline’s spokesperson explained to AeroTime News. Nordica is to continue operating a Swedish Public Service Obligations (PSO) route between Stockholm-Arlanda (ARN), Arvidsjaur (AJR), and Gällivare (GEV) for the next four years and is participating in other public tenders. 

“In June the Estonian virtual airline Nordica announced suspension from 27 October this year of ticket sales and flights on Tallinn routes under its own brand in order to focus on participation in public tenders and charter flight operations only,” Toomas Uibo Nordica Aviation Group Head of Communications told AeroTime News. “The competition and oversupply of seats on Tallinn routes do not allow us to operate profitably, today. In order to maintain readiness and our ability to provide the necessary regional air connections to Estonia in the future, Nordica will continue to provide air services and LOT will deal with routes and ticket sales, and will carry the commercial risk”. 

From August 1, 2019, Nordica had already transferred its Brussels (Belgium) and Stockholm (Sweden) flights to LOT,  warning passengers about accompanying flight numbers changes and the fact that all responsibility of these flights (including ticket changes, rebookings, and cancellations reimbursement) had also been transferred to the Polish airline. 

Meanwhile, capacity provider Regional Jet, Nordica’s (51%) joint subsidiary with LOT (49%), remains profitable and continues to provide air services to LOT, SAS and European contract partners and is preparing for expansion in 2020. 

Regional Jet currently operates a fleet of 19 aircraft, a mix between 12 CRJs and seven ATR72s. The following year the airline will add its first Embraer E-Jets, adding a total of ten new aircraft to its fleet.