REGIONAL JET has secured a positive climb rate and continues to grow its Capacity Provider Business

Estonian airline REGIONAL JET, established in 2016, owned by Nordica and Polish airline LOT, made a better than expected zero result for 2018. With 19 aircraft, 12 CRJ900s and seven ATR72-600s as well as 450 employees, of which 85 are based in the Tallinn office, the company is one of the biggest regional airlines in Europe—totally dedicated to operating as a subcontractor to other commercial airlines.

“I am really impressed with how our organisation has developed all these new businesses in such a short period of time, with a performance level above the average aviation industry,” says CEO of REGIONAL JET Jan Palmér. “We are now above our critical mass in terms of fleet size, which makes us a very competitive, flexible and sustainable regional airline.”

The turnover in 2018 was nearly 68 MEUR, up from 37.5 MEUR 2017—an increase of 80%. Intensive expansion and investments into our ability to offer more services to customers have also had an impact on REGIONAL JET equity, but this issue has now been resolved by the owners. The Estonian airline is standing on solid ground and is ready to take its business to the next level.

The intensive growth will continue during 2019/20 with new long-term capacity provider contracts for four ATR72’s, seven CRJ900’s and before summer 2020 the introduction of a new aircraft type, Embraer-190/195 with 110-120 seats. Nordica has reduced its commercial activities outside of Tallinn, and REGIONAL JET has been able to relocate both aircraft and crews from Nordica operations to new customers. The fleet will grow from 19 to 26 aircraft before summer 2020.

“Major Airlines’ outsourcing of regional aircraft production has recently begun in Europe but has been huge in the USA for a long time. There are so many good reasons for outsourcing; it is basically a win-win situation for both parties and we, as REGIONAL JET, are totally dedicated to being part of this new development”, continues Jan Palmér.

Today, REGIONAL JET has 435 employees, of which 85 are based in the Tallinn office, and 350 crews based in Tallinn, Vilnius, Copenhagen, Billund, Aarhus, Stockholm and Warsaw. During summer 2019 the airline is operating for Nordica, LOT, SAS, AirSerbia, Luxair, Flybe, LoganAir, Smartlynx, GreatDaneAirlines, BMI Regional and a number of ad-hoc charters.