STOCKHOLM — Scandinavian airline operator SAS AB wants to increase its ownership in Estonian Air by buying the Estonian government's 34 percent stake in the troubled airline, a SAS spokesman said Thursday.
SAS, which owns 49 percent of Estonian Air, proposed the buyout in a letter to Estonia's Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, on Nov. 17, SAS spokesman Bertil Ternert said. He said the SAS had not heard back from Estonia yet.
In the letter, SAS Chief Executive Mats Jansson said Stockholm-based group couldn't justify a "capital injection" into the cash-strapped Estonian airline unless SAS becomes a majority owner, Ternert said.
SAS is 50 percent owned by the governments of Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Its main carrier is Scandinavian Airlines and it also owns regional airlines Spanair, airBaltic, Wideroe and Blue1.
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