Estonian airline Nordica in cooperation with Adria Airways has sold over 150,000 flight tickets by this year. Approximately 82,000 passengers have travelled on almost 2,500 flights in the first months of the year, from January to April. Approximately 70,000 tickets have been booked up to the end of the year. A record number of tickets was sold during the “Eesti moodi Euroopasse’ (To Europe the Estonian Way) spring campaign, where sales increased by almost a half.

Estonian people are very interested in flying with Nordica. “This is a clear sign that Estonia needs its own airline,” said Nordica board member Erik Sakkov. “Its biggest value lies in servicing business, diplomatic and political passenger traffic and generating incoming tourism. The local airline also offers Estonian people the best opportunities for travelling as conveniently and quickly as possible. We feel that our people want to fly with Nordica. We’re extremely pleased about it and very grateful to everyone.”

The most popular destinations for Nordica’s direct flights are Amsterdam and Stockholm, and there is also a lot of interest in the seasonal flights to Split and Nice. Odessa is also an attractive destination for many passengers. However, the interest in the summer route to Edinburgh is surprisingly small. After some serious consideration, the management of the airline decided not to launch the route at the end of May. Nordica will contact everyone who has bought tickets to Edinburgh and either find an alternative way of getting to the destination with the help of partner airlines or replace the tickets with tickets to another Nordica direct flight if this suits the client.

“As a national airline, we serve the interests of the Estonian people,” said Erik Sakkov. “The first large Nordica ticket campaign showed that direct flights to Edinburgh did not find support on the market, and such modest interest means that not opening the route would be the reasonable thing to do. Instead, we will focus on flying to other destinations that have become important for our people,” said Sakkov. “We will look after everyone who bought tickets to Edinburgh.”

Nordica in cooperation with Adria Airways will be organising flights to 15 different European destinations this summer season. The route network includes summer flights to Paris, Nice, Split, Rijeka and Odessa, and year-round flights to Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Kiev, Munich, Oslo, Stockholm, Trondheim, Vienna and Vilnius.