TALLINN, March 21 (Xinhua) -- The Estonian Air on Thursday reported a record net loss of 49.2 million euros (about 63.4 million U.S. dollars) for 2012 on the back of years of heavy losses, dealing another fatal strike to the illy-operated airlines.
The previous biggest annual loss was 17.3 million euros in 2011, according to a statement released by the company.
"Late last year, the supervisory board of the company decided to change Estonian Air's business model from growth oriented carrier to a regional point-to-point airline," CEO Jan Palmer said in the statement.
"While the airline carried a record number of passengers in 2012, low yields from the transfer traffic did not support the airline's bottom line. Although the airline brought four new jet aircraft into service by the start of the summer season, overall the fleet transition proved to be more costly than planned," Palmer said.
Since January, Estonian Air has been operating according to a restructuring plan to become cost efficient, with the priority being to provide flights to high-demand destinations.
The 10 core destinations of Estonian Air are Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Oslo, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Vilnius and Trondheim.
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