Nordica

[davidjohnson6]

Shortly after Estonian Air went bust in autumn 2015, Nordica began selling flights to/from Tallinn using the AOC of Slovenian airline Adria, as well as chartering in aircraft from various small European airlines like bmi regional, Nextjet and Carpatair

One year on, and Nordica is still using Adria's AOC and seems to show no sign of transitioning from being essentially a travel agency chartering flights, to a fully fledged airline standing on its own two feet. Of course, there might be very good reasons for continuing with the status quo - this might include a desire to prioitise ensuring that Talling has air connectivity rather than a big flag carrier airline, and not wanting to risk another repeat of Estnonian's bankruptcy.

Does anyone know what the gameplan is, or is the current relationship with Adria intended to continue on the same basis indefinitely ?

[Bjarte]

No, from 19 november LOT Polish Airlines is the new partner of Nordica. LOT will acquire 49% shareholding and Nordica will be feeder operator to LOT. There will be a new route Warsaw-Stockholm.

[01475]

I was really surprised when I read the announcement today (Google translate version of story here here (https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=et&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmajandus24.postimees.ee%2Fv2%2F3898163%2Fnord ica-vahetab-adria-airwaysi-poola-loti-vastu-vaelja&edit-text=&act=url).

As a person that flies to Estonian far too much I have a vested interest in things working out for them, but to he honest I was surprised that another airline would want anything to do with them. It's not easy to imagine a rosy future for them!

It does say that they are looking to become an actual airline, which I imagine is a good plan. Relying on an airline like Adria was quite risky...

[davidjohnson6]

Forgive me for asking a perhaps stupid question, but does Nordica have an AOC and operate (or plan to operate) at least some flights in its own name ? Alternatively, is Nordica just a glorified travel agency chartering flights from other airlines ?

I'm not particularly interested whether Nordica have a pretty website, or whether they have their logo painted on a plane's tail - I'm interested in AOC, whether words like 'Operated by' appear painted somewhere on the plane, or which company bears legal responsibility if things were to go wrong (like the engines falling off mid flight !)

[01475]

They were set up in more of a hurry than expected as the EU brought forward their state aid decision on doomed predecessor Estonian Airways by several months. Previously they were "operated by" Adria, and soon that will be Lot. At first the actual aircraft were from all sorts of people, including Adria, BMI & Carpatair, and they were just a glorified travel agency.

At the moment they are somewhere in between travel agency and airline. Most flights are now actually their own aircraft with their own crews, but they still operate using borrowed AOCs. The articles on this matter say they expect to have their own AOC by early next year.

[SWBKCB]

See link - Regional Jet seem to be a subsidiary of the The Nordic Aviation Group


http://www.ecaa.ee/public/Regional_AOC.pdf

[01475]

Well found - that's very recent! https://ariregister.rik.ee shows it's the right company.

Edit: That said, I don't think they've started using it yet; looks like they're going to be using it from Mid Nov.

Also, playing around with their website makes me very sad :-( For flights from London they are offering only LOT via WAW, whereas previously they offered SAS via ARN, BA/KLM via AMS (from LCY as well as LHR), LH via MUC and SN via BRU. As a result the flight times and prices they are giving are all awful :-( I wonder how long Munich was last as 2xdaily if they aren't going to offer connections from it!

The animation on their website is interesting; it includes Kaunas, which there's never been any public suggestion they intend to fly to! I wonder if they do...

[alm1]

Vilnius flights will be moved to Kaunas while there is runway resurfacing for 5 weeks in Summer 2017. So now Kaunas appears to have lots of airlines like SAS, Finnair, Nordica and so on, although none of them fly there now.

[01475]

Ah - thanks!

[Bjarte]

@01475 That is because there are big issues with the transition into LOT flight numbers. Many routes are not bookable yet.

[01475]

I see! I guess two weeks isn't long enough to sort out that kind of thing. They seem to be getting into a habit of being in disastrous rushes in November...

[eu01]

According to some sources, LOT paid for this acquisition not more than 20.000 EUR. If true, what kind of deal it actually is?

[01475]

It certainly seems to be something that was rushed, and I guess that may mean there was desperation.

It has been announced only just before the anniversary of the Nordica-Adria deal coming into effect (presumably for one year), and given that the flights aren't massively bookable it has apparently been done without enough notice to put that quite important aspect into practice in time!

[01475]

Postimees is reporting today (in Estonian) that travel agents are saying that Warsaw isn't as good a hub as London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Stockholm, and Riga... and predicting that Air Baltic could come out this well.

[Intrance]

Nordica indeed has a subsidiary called Regional Jet, with it's own AOC. Callsign Reval, IATA EST and flight numbers start with EE. It is not as recent as the PDF file might suggest, that is just the date of the last update where more aircraft were added to the AOC (from the Adria AOC). Some charter, maintenance and training flights were flown under their own AOC.

The Estonian market has proven it's not really big enough, or growing, to support a standalone airline that focuses on just TLL routes. So they needed a partner to keep on growing and one that is a member of Star Alliance to keep lucrative codeshares. LOT has a better ticketing system with (once the starting issues are sorted out) more options and features for passengers. Things like online check-in at all airports is one obvious example. The partnership will likely also mean some added frequency on certain routes, some new routes operated by Nordica and quite probably more planes coming to the fleet.

It's hard to predict how it will work out longer term, but for now it's a good way to keep the company fairly lean so to speak, while still operating nearly all flights on Nordica (Regional Jet) equipment and with own crew and procedures etc. So while the planes might get a sticker added with LOT on it instead of Adria, it's all Nordica crew and planes as far as I am aware.

[davidjohnson6]

Have Nordica actually begun using their own AOC yet rather than that of LOT ? If not, anyone know when (or if) they plan to do so ?

[01475]

Nordica granted permission to hand over holding in subsidiary to LOT | News | ERR (http://news.err.ee/v/business/8e2d4d3d-72c5-493e-9f5f-0d5fd4531fd8/nordica-granted-permission-to-hand-over-holding-in-subsidiary-to-lot)

Nordic Aviation Group, the Estonian state-owned airline operating under the Nordica brand since spring 2016, has been granted permission from Estonia's Competition Authority to hand over 49 percent of the shares in the operator of aircraft and air operator's certificates Regional Jet to its strategic partner LOT.
The parties filed a notice of consolidation on Dec. 30, according to which Nordic Aviation Group and Polish carrier Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A. wish to jointly acquire control over the Estonian company Regional Jet OÜ. Regional Jet is a fully-owned subsidiary of Nordic Aviation Group.

The transaction will not have an impact on the holding structures of Nordic Aviation or LOT and both will remain independent companies following the transaction.

Nordica announced at the beginning of November that its year-long cooperation with Slovenia's Adria Airways was coming to an end and it was set to enter into a strategic partnership with LOT Polish Airlines, using the latter's commercial platform, ticketing system and airline code.

The carrier said at the time that it planned to increase the fleet of its subsidiary Regional Jet by three planes in 2017 and to 20-25 planes by 2020 in cooperation with its new partner. As part of their strategic cooperation, LOT will acquire 49 percent of shares in Regional Jet.

Polish state-owned carrier LOT operates on average 200 flights to 60 destinations on four continents daily, carrying approximately five million passengers per year.

I'd love to know what the plans for 20-25 planes would be. They're clearly not all related to anything to do with Estonia!

[01475]

Nordica to operate Brussels route with larger aircraft this autumn | Business | ERR (http://news.err.ee/608684/nordica-to-operate-brussels-route-with-larger-aircraft-this-autumn)

Nordica had already increased its number of departures on the Tallinn-Brussels route and would operate it with a plane that has twice the capacity of the airline’s currently largest CRJ900 type in September and October, Simson told Postimees.

Any ideas who will be providing this?

[Chidken Sangwich]

Nordica to operate Brussels route with larger aircraft this autumn | Business | ERR (http://news.err.ee/608684/nordica-to-operate-brussels-route-with-larger-aircraft-this-autumn)



Any ideas who will be providing this?

LOT B734's are in 162, so putting two and two together...