Regional Jet made its inaugural flight on the Stockholm-Arvidsjaur-Gällivare route

Regional Jet, a subsidiary of Estonia’s national airline Nordica, made its inaugural flight on the Stockholm-Arvidsjaur-Gällivare route yesterday. The flights represent a domestic link commissioned by Swedish local governments, the public procurement for which Nordica and its subsidiary won in mid-August.

Operated by Nordica with a CRJ900 aircraft, the flights depart from Stockholm for Gällivare, with a stopover in Arvidsjaur, at 9:15 and 19:15 from Monday to Friday and at 20:30 on Sundays. The flights from Gällivare to the Swedish capital depart at 6:00 and 15:00 from Monday to Friday, also with a stopover in Arvidsjaur. On Sunday the flight from Arvidsjaur to Stockholm departs at 15:00. There are no Saturday flights.

Toomas Uibo, Nordica’s Director of Marketing and Communication, says that offering export services abroad is a key component of the Estonian airline’s business model. “In a country as small as ours the home market of any airline has to be Europe as a whole,” he remarked. “Whereas 15 years ago it was still possible to develop aviation here with a focus on Estonia itself, that’s much harder to do these days, so one solution is to export your services to other countries. And the route we’ve just launched in Sweden is a perfect example of that.”

Uibo added that Estonian travellers will now be able to fly with their own airline to Swedish Lapland, where snow and ideal conditions for both downhill and cross-country skiing are guaranteed in the winter months. Dundret ski centre in Gällivare has hosted a number of world championship events in the sports and is a favourite training ground for the national teams of many countries.

The procurement contract for the new Swedish route is valid until October 2019.