The future of Estonian national carrier Estonian Air today is more certain that
it was three months ago, Estonian Air CEO Jan Palmér said in an interview to Ärileht.
We are back on track," he said. Palmer has been running Estonian Air for nine months after taking over from Tero Taskila.
Q: At the end of July you will be publishing Estonian Air's second quarter and
first-half results. What can we expect?
A: Our objective was to reach running profit before summer, more specifically in
May. We did not achieve it then, but we did it in June.,
This is the first time after 2010 when we broke even, considering all costs. You
can say that half-year results are satisfactory, we are ahead of our plan and it
is very important in the light of restructuring and state loan. We hope to reach
annual profit in 2014.
On July 19 we will say goodbye to our last Boeing and will be operating seven aircraft,
including three Bombardiers and four Embraers, as planned. Half of the personnel
has been laid off and we have reached a reasonable staff number.
Q: Recently, you laid off two management board members Rauno Parras and Jyri
Ketola. How is this going to affect the work of the management?
A: We did it to simplify management work. Such a small company does not need a board
of six members. Instead of the current four we will have three: me, finance director
Wade Stokes and chief operating officer Mikael Wångdahl. (Also the position of Andreas
Kari will be abolished - editor).
Toomas Hõbemägi
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