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

Tonis Lepp, manager of the Nordic Crew Management OU company set up to search for personnel for Nordic Aviation Group, told BNS that one can be satisfied with the results of the personnel search so far.

Nordic Crew Management has signed agreements with 12 former Estonian Air pilots, 10 of whom will start flying as hired labor for Nordic Aviation Group and two for the Finnish carrier Nordic Regional Airlines, the former Flybe Nordic.

Nordic Crew Management continues the search for pilots and is ready to sign qualified people.

Agreements are about to be signed soon with 20 former Estonian Air cabin personnel who will proceed to work at Nordic Aviation, Lepp said. Altogether the state owned airline is planning to hire about 40 cabin crew, but the timelines of that process are as yet unclear.

The pilots leased to Nordic Aviation passed a simulator test in Berlin in November and the cabin crew were trained in Slovenia. In the future training staff will come here from Slovenia to teach former Estonian Air cabin personnel to conform to the requirements of Adria Airways.

Lepp said that so far, Nordic Aviation has been searching for staff from among the former workers of Estonian Air alone.

Previously former pilots of Estonian Air have told BNS that the new Estonian Airline is offering worse pay and work conditions than Estonian Air.

Lepp has told BNS that while the fixed salary of pilots will be lower at the new company than it was at Estonian Air, bigger bonuses would be added to the basic salary for flight hours. He said that if pilots would fly as much as at Estonian Air, they would get paid as much or even more than in their previous job.

Estonian Air employed 182 people, including 55 pilots, 64 cabin personnel and 63 administrative staff.