The state-owned Estonian airline Estonian Air made an operating loss of 4.9 million euros on revenue of 16.2 million euros in the first quarter of 2013, representing a reduction by approximately 40 percent and an increase of 5 percent year on year, respectively.
Estonian Air carried 121,700 passengers during the three months, 13 percent fewer than a year ago, while flying 11 percent fewer round trips.
"Estonian Air launched an extensive restructuring process in January and in connection with that we have critically reviewed our network and all cost items," said Jan Palmer, CEO of Estonian Air. "The results of the first quarter give us confidence that we are on the right track with restructuring – we have succeeded in reducing losses significantly and at the same time increased revenue with less passengers."
The aim of the restructuring process is to reach sustainability in Estonian Air's operations. "The current progress in our restructuring gives us hope that Estonian Air will reach the break-even point in its core business on a monthly basis at some point during the summer season. But there is still a lot of work to be done to reach the main goal – to turn the operation into a sustainable airline providing flights to the critically important destinations for Estonia," he said.
Palmer said that at the end of April the company presented to the shareholder a detailed restructuring plan that will serve as the basis for recapitalization of Estonian Air. The government endorsed the restructuring plan on Thursday.
Estonian Air flies to Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Oslo, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Vilnius and Trondheim. In addition, will fly between Tallinn and Paris from June to August and to Nice from May to September.