Estonian Air got its first CRJ700 today
The first CRJ700 aircraft has landed at Tallinn airport today to start serving Estonian Air regular flights in the nearest days. The second CRJ700 aircraft will arrive in a week to serve Estonian Air routes. The leasing period of two aircraft is two years.
The 70-seater CRJ700 aircraft will serve Estonian Air flights like Stockholm, Brussels, Oslo, Kiev, etc. In parallel Estonian Air is using 88-seater CRJ900 NextGen and one Embraer170 aircraft in its fleet.
“We have now started redelivery process of our 4 Embraer170 aircraft, as stated in our restructuring plan, and the last Embraer170 will leave Estonian Air in December. This gives us the opportunity to create a one-type fleet of CRJ aircraft where the 76-seater Embraer170 aircraft will be substituted with 70-seater CRJ700. For a relatively small airline like Estonian Air this will save cost and increase flexibility,” said Jan Palmér, CEO of Estonian Air.
By March next year Estonian Air will be through the transition period where the airline has to use some aircraft from other airlines. “The plan is to operate altogether with 5-6 CRJ900 and CRJ700 regional jet aircraft on routes to/from Tallinn, and one smaller turboprop on Tallinn-Stockholm Bromma route from March next year. On top of that we hope to operate with another 2-4 CRJ regional jet aircraft as capacity providers to other companies,” added Palmér.
Estonian Air, founded in 1991 and headquartered in Tallinn, is the largest carrier at Tallinn Airport. Estonian Air is aiming to provide Estonia with reliable and regular double daily connections to destinations of strategic importance and of substantial demand. Being a small country on the periphery of Europe, Estonia depends on such connections, and Estonian Air is committed to provide these services.
Estonian Air has two business lines: serving direct flights of strategic importance for Estonia and of substantial demand, and providing capacity to several major airlines in Europe and Scandinavia.
Estonian Air operates regular routes from Tallinn to Stockholm (Arlanda and Bromma), Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Oslo, Moscow, St Petersburg, Kiev, Vilnius and Trondheim. Until October 2015, Estonian Air operates seasonal flights to Munich, Paris, Berlin, Nice, Vienna, Milan and Split in addition.
Estonian Air is a member of IATA (International Air Transport Association) and certified according to the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA).
