Canada’s Ontario Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Estonian Air in the airline’s dispute with Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier, writes Postimees.
Estonian Air’s CEO Jan Palmer confirmed that the court case was over and that the court ruled in favour if Estonian Air. Palmer was unable to say how much the court case cost the airline.
The company has not announced the compensation amount that Bombardier had been demanding from the Estonian state and Estonian Air for cancelling its order to new aircraft. It is known that Estonian Air paid Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer around EUR 8m for cancelling its order to buy two aircraft.
Estonian Air and Bombardier made an agreement in 2011 that Estonian Air will buy five new Bombardier aircraft CRJ900. The transaction was financed by the Canadian export credit agency.
When Estonian Air cancelled the aircraft purchase agreement with Bombardier, the Canadian company claimed that the Estonian government had interfered in the decision-making process of Estonian Air and had forced the airline to cancel its agreement with Bombardier so that it could buy five Embraer aircraft.
Embraer delivered three planes to Estonian Air, but the order for two was cancelled when the state changed the strategy of Estonian Air and the airline no longer needed so many planes.
Sales manager of Bombardier, Robert Baseggio, claimed that he was informed by Estonian Air CEO Tero Taskila that Embraer was lobbying the Estonian government to buy aircraft from Embraer instead of Bombardier. The Canadian supreme court ruled that there was no evidence that the Estonian state had influenced the decision of Estonian Air.
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