Postimees Digest, Friday, March 22
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Estonian Air to sell subsidiaries and hike ticket prices.
National airline Estonian Air reported a loss of 49.2 million euros for last year at yesterday's press conference. While the company's turnover grew by 20 percent to 91.5 million euros compared to 2011, its loss grew by a massive 184 percent over the same period. CFO Wade Stokes hinted that the loss is the result of the actions of the company's former heads as attempts to fly to as many destinations as possible resulted in ever-greater losses as ticket revenue failed to cover flight expenses.
No less than 13.4 million euros of the airline's loss can be attributed to its Bombardiers' depreciation costs. Current heads of the airline also introduced steps the company plans to take to gradually bring Estonian Air out of loss, including sale of subsidiaries, layoffs and higher ticket prices. The airline has received 25 million euros of support from the state this year while the government has pledged 37 million euros in total. Stokes said the company needs between 50 and 70 million euros.
Riigikogu reelectes recent board.
The Riigikogu has reelected chairman Ene Ergma and deputy chairmen Laine Randjärv and Jüri Ratas in what was a surprising development where Center Party's Jüri Ratas received numerous votes from coalition delegates at the secret voting. Ratas defeated Social Democrat Party's candidate Eiki Nestor with 31 votes in a situation where the Center Party only has 21 seats in the parliament. Coalition partners the Reform Party and Pro Patria Res Publica Union (IRL) exchanged accusations in blog posts after the vote as both parties denied giving votes to opposition members in a situation where Nestor apparently received four votes from the coalition and Ratas ten.
Every fifth vocational student drops out.
A recent survey ordered by the Ministry of Education and Science reveals that every fifth vocational student drops out of school in Estonia whereas 90 percent of them do not obtain a vocational or higher education later in life. Researchers interviewed more than 60 dropouts and found personal reasons to be the number one cause of students dropping out of school.
The survey suggests that students most often fail to graduate due to laziness, lack of study habit or inability to adjust to new conditions and a general lack of motivation. Authors of the survey recommend more thorough career counselling already on the basic school level to spark students' interests and make sure they go on to study the things they want to study. Course supervisors should be given enough time to deal with individual students and a teacher feedback system should be put in place.
Eesti Energia to be handled by the finance ministry.
The government decided yesterday to move state-owned energy giant Eesti Energia from the administrative area of the economy ministry to that of the finance ministry to comply with EU regulation according to which energy producers and transmission network operators cannot belong in the same administrative area.