newstodate.aero
Sep 11, 2009 (newstodate): The idea of a joint Baltic national carrier to serve Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is not new to Estonian Air.
-The idea has some reason behind it and has popped up from time to time. So it has again only a few days ago, but it is really no news to us, says Andrus Aljas, Estonian Air president and CEO.
-At this stage we are not involved in any concrete project or working group in this respect. It is an idea to be evaluated by the politicians and the state, first of all, to see if it is really good or bad.
-Forming a pan-Baltic carrier around Latvias airBaltic is of course good for airBaltic, but not necessarily good for Estonia or Lithuania. The pan-Baltic airline would have its natural hub at Riga that is the bigggest airport in the region, and that would mean that Estonian and Lithuanian passengers would have to transfer at Riga rather than having non-stop direct flights out of their own airports to international destinations. That would not be a benefit to the markets of Estonia and Lithuania.
-Anyhow, we will of course see the discussions continuing, but regardless of this our prime task at Estonian Air remains to continue developing our services, network and offerings in response to demands in the market, says Mr Aljas.
-The idea has some reason behind it and has popped up from time to time. So it has again only a few days ago, but it is really no news to us, says Andrus Aljas, Estonian Air president and CEO.
-At this stage we are not involved in any concrete project or working group in this respect. It is an idea to be evaluated by the politicians and the state, first of all, to see if it is really good or bad.
-Forming a pan-Baltic carrier around Latvias airBaltic is of course good for airBaltic, but not necessarily good for Estonia or Lithuania. The pan-Baltic airline would have its natural hub at Riga that is the bigggest airport in the region, and that would mean that Estonian and Lithuanian passengers would have to transfer at Riga rather than having non-stop direct flights out of their own airports to international destinations. That would not be a benefit to the markets of Estonia and Lithuania.
-Anyhow, we will of course see the discussions continuing, but regardless of this our prime task at Estonian Air remains to continue developing our services, network and offerings in response to demands in the market, says Mr Aljas.