newstodate.aero
May 22, 2014 (newstodate): Estonian Air will have to adjust its ongoing restructuring plan to balance sustained interest on the state loan.
The EU Commission is currently investigating the legality of an earlier state loan as art of measures to keep the carrier in the air. But as the investigation is continuing beyond the originally expected time frame, the burden for interest payments continue to weigh heavily on the airline that ended 2013 with a negative result larger than expected.
The airline now haw to revise the restructuring plan to be transmitted to the EU Commission after government approval, and further cost cutting measures are therefore to be expected.
Also burdening the airline's efforts to survive is the excess aircraft capacity until 2015 when the Embraer 175 aircraft can finally be handed back to Finnair by the expiry of the leasing contract.
In the carrier's fleet are four Embraer E-170 leased from Finnair until 2015 and three Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft, but the tailored route network requires only the capacity of five aircraft - leaving two in excess.
One E-170 has thus been placed with ACS for ad-hoc and leasing while another E-170 will be serving a new route between V�xj� Sm�land Airport in Sweden and Amsterdam starting from May 2014 with eight weekly rotations in a code-share with KLM.
The EU Commission is currently investigating the legality of an earlier state loan as art of measures to keep the carrier in the air. But as the investigation is continuing beyond the originally expected time frame, the burden for interest payments continue to weigh heavily on the airline that ended 2013 with a negative result larger than expected.
The airline now haw to revise the restructuring plan to be transmitted to the EU Commission after government approval, and further cost cutting measures are therefore to be expected.
Also burdening the airline's efforts to survive is the excess aircraft capacity until 2015 when the Embraer 175 aircraft can finally be handed back to Finnair by the expiry of the leasing contract.
In the carrier's fleet are four Embraer E-170 leased from Finnair until 2015 and three Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft, but the tailored route network requires only the capacity of five aircraft - leaving two in excess.
One E-170 has thus been placed with ACS for ad-hoc and leasing while another E-170 will be serving a new route between V�xj� Sm�land Airport in Sweden and Amsterdam starting from May 2014 with eight weekly rotations in a code-share with KLM.