newstodate.aero

Jul 29, 2019 (newstodate): Critical mass is a crux for any airline venture - and the Estonian capacity provider Regional Jet claims to have passed this landmark.  
   -We are now above our critical mass in terms of fleet size, which makes us a very competitive, flexible and sustainable regional airline, says Jan Palmer, Regional Jet CEO, in a comment to the company's 2018 results including a turnover at nearly euro 68 mio, up 80 percent, y-o-y.
   Regional Jet, established in 2016, owned by Nordica and Polish airline LOT, now operates a fleet of 19 aircraft including seven ATR 72-600 operating for SAS, two CRJ700, and 10 CRJ900 aircraft of which five are currently operating for LOT and two for SAS starting from 2020, and plans are to introduce a new aircraft type, Embraer-190/195  before summer 2020, bringing the fleet from 19 to 26 aircraft.
   Under its new strategy, Nordica has reduced its commercial activities outside of Tallinn, and Regional Jet has been able to relocate both aircraft and crews from Nordica operations to new customers in the ACMI and charter markets.
   Nordica was set up in the aftermath of Estonian Air's demise in September 2015, with flights operated by various capacity providers, and in November 2016, LOT acquired 49 percent of the stake in Regional Jet, a Nordica subsidiary and capacity provider to Nordica with own AOC.