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Sep 22, 2023 (newstodate): The Estonian state was a poor and disinterested owner of Nordic Aviation Group, says the Estonian National Audit Office.
   The biting report by the Audit Office attributes the dire situation of NAG/Nordica to the state's lack of skill and interest in its role as owner of the aviation group, and even before the financial difficulties faced by Nordica surfaced earlier this year, reasons were lacking to justify the state ownership of the airline and OÜ Transpordi Varahalddus.
   Founded in 2015, Nordica was established to secure air connectivity for Estonia by a network left void after the bankruptcy of the country's earlier national carrier, Estonian Air.
   This proved futile, however, and Nordica and its capacity provider Xfly instead turned to wet-lease and ACMI business contributing nothing to the country's air connectivity.
   The National Audit Office recommends that after the results of its special audit of Nordica have been released and the company's economic activities have been stabilized, the Estonian government must sell its stake in the airline either by privatizing Nordica and Transpordi Varahaldus together or separately.
   To restructure the company's business, the Board has contracted the international aviation consultancy Knighthood Global for a period of up to six months, during which all operations and cost structure of the company will be revised.
   On July 26, 2023, the Board appointed Remco Althuis, the lead of the turnaround consultancy team, as the company's new interim CEO after the demise of Jan Palmer, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board since 2018.   
   Headquartered in Tallinn, the group operates flights under two brands, two IOSA-certified AOC’s - XFLY operating nine ATR72-600 and nine CRJ900 and Nordica operating four A320 aircraft.      
   Xfly and Nordica operate within the framework of long-term ACMI partnerships with SAS, TAP and MARABU and for the summer 2023 with Cyprus Airways.