newstodate.aero
Feb 22, 2013 (newstodate): Estonia's government had placed Estonian Air on its agenda on February 21 - but decided to postpone the discussion for one week.
In-between came the announcement by the EU Commission of the launch of an investigation into alleged illegal state-aid for Estonian, and this will add further heat under the ailing carrier from fears of having to repay the state financial injections if they are found to run contrary to EU regulations.
At the basis for the government's now postponed deliberation was the presentation of a new re-structuring plan for the airline as a prerequisite for new state loans.
It remains to be seen how long the carrier can survive without substantial external financing.
In the meantime, Estonian Air is still operating, managing to increase passenger volumes in January 2013 by 2.2 percent to 43,367 and increasing the volume of flight operations by 8.9 percent to 1,054 movements.
The carrier now operates a tailored route network with flights from Tallinn to Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Oslo, Moscow, St Petersburg, Kiev, Vilnius and Trondheim, as well as flights to Vienna until the end of March 2013.
In-between came the announcement by the EU Commission of the launch of an investigation into alleged illegal state-aid for Estonian, and this will add further heat under the ailing carrier from fears of having to repay the state financial injections if they are found to run contrary to EU regulations.
At the basis for the government's now postponed deliberation was the presentation of a new re-structuring plan for the airline as a prerequisite for new state loans.
It remains to be seen how long the carrier can survive without substantial external financing.
In the meantime, Estonian Air is still operating, managing to increase passenger volumes in January 2013 by 2.2 percent to 43,367 and increasing the volume of flight operations by 8.9 percent to 1,054 movements.
The carrier now operates a tailored route network with flights from Tallinn to Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Oslo, Moscow, St Petersburg, Kiev, Vilnius and Trondheim, as well as flights to Vienna until the end of March 2013.