Airport, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Legislation, Transport

"On Friday Estonian Air filed a bankruptcy petition in the Harju country court in which it asks the court to launch a bankruptcy proceeding, determine a hearing time for looking through the bankruptcy petition and appoint a temporary trustee in bankruptcy," spokesperson for the airline Ilona Eskelinen told BNS.

Last Friday Estonian Air sent a letter to creditors, in which it asked for their consent for paying employees unreceived wages, vacation compensation and redundancy benefits, saying the sum would reduce the assets of Estonian Air from which claims of creditors could be partly satisfied and asking creditors to forward confirmation of consent by November 18 at the latest. By the deadline 27 creditors had sent in their answers, eight of them giving a negative answer, including one of the biggest creditors SAS.

"The supervisory board found that it is not possible to liquidate the company without submitting a bankruptcy petition," Eskelinen said.

"The airline has 222 creditors that have submitted claims worth around 113.5 million euros. The company has assets worth about 11.4 million euros. The company's employees have not been added to the list of creditors since they have not yet received redundancy notices," she said.

Estonian Air stopped operating flights on Nov. 7, following an announcement of a decision by the European Commission finding that the airline has received illegal state aid and must return 85 million euros to the state.