Aviation, railway aren't indispensable expenses for Estonia - privatization chief

Photo: Margus Ansu

While the government has many expenditures that are indispensable, aviation and rail transport are not among them, Väino Sarnet, long-time chief of the Estonian Privatization Agency in the 1990s, said on a television broadcast Thursday evening.

Speaking as guest on the Kahekõne (Dialogue) show of ETV public television, Sarnet said the government should not have taken Estonian Air back with so much bravado. Instead it should have started looking for a new partner immediately when the problem came up and not pretend that the state is a good owner and can manage the airline forever.

"One should have helped a bit, simultaneously not forgetting to make a joint venture. Not forgetting that the best solution is to make others incur the costs, not incur them yourself. During ten years someone else incurred the costs and Estonian Air flew excellently. Why should the state incur them [costs] itself?" Sarnet asked.

In the words of Sarnet, bankruptcy of Estonian Air would not be a national disaster. He said that if someone else flew cheaper and to a bigger number of destinations it wouldn't be essential that the barn swallow national symbol of Estonia was painted on the plane.

Sarnet, upon whom the president bestowed the Order of the White Cross on the occasion of Estonia's upcoming independence anniversary, said there were many expenses that had to be incurred by the state, but railway and aviation were not among them.

"There are things that the state alone can handle, and we must not support aviation and railways by leaving undone things that absolutely have to be done," he said. "That's why we must not engage ourselves with things that maybe look very sweet politically, but in fact are harmful in the long term."