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

The information has been confirmed by several Kazakh and Estonian sources.

It has been alleged that Air Astana that operates in Central Asia and in Russia has been wishing to open routes to Europe for quite some time already, but has not found a suitable partner. The airline does not wish to join an overly strong partner as that could become too forceful for dictating its own rules.

Estonian Air in turn is looking for a window to Asia and would thus serve as a suitable partner company. The potential Kazakh partner would also bring to the union cheaper airplane fuel that would serve as an important competitive advantage. No official confirmations, however, could be received from any of the leading figures in the transportation sector in Estonia.

Eesti Päevaleht claims that Finland’s airline Finnair is trying to prevent the partnership from being completed, fearing losing its competitive edge in flying to Asia across Russia.

More than a week ago, the daily newspaper wrote about a meeting of the Riigikogu Committee on Economic Affairs where MPs were given an overview of the current state of Estonian Air and its future options.