OREANDA-NEWS.  March 28, 2012. The third 32-seater SAAB 340 has landed at Tallinn Airport yesterday evening. The aircraft will serve Estonian Air flights to nearby regions already at the end of March. The third SAAB with register number ES-ASO is operated by Estonian Air Regional under a lease agreement until the end of 2012. Estonian Air Regional, a 100% owned subsidiary of Estonian Air, operates shorter regional flights of Estonian Air, reported the press-centre of Estonian Air.

“Estonian Air needs the third SAAB to serve its increased summer flight schedule. The same time we are working to replace the existing SAAB fleet with new generation turbopropeller fleet. The time schedule for the change is depending on the availability of these planes,” said Rauno Parras, the Chief Commercial Officer.

Estonian Air has improved its flight network significantly and will continue to offer improved air connections starting from Tallinn. Estonian market limited. Therefore the airline needs to attract more passengers from neighboring countries, for instance Finland, to take continuation flights via Tallinn. “First we widen our operations on the markets where passengers have the same needs – to fly to European capitals and most important cities. By attracting more transit passengers Estonian Air can offer for Estonians better flight schedule and to open new destinations in economically sustainable way,” explained Parras.

Estonian Air offers business travellers and tourists direct flights from Tallinn to European cities. The national airline of Estonia focuses on improving flight connections between Estonia and the rest of the world in order to become more competitive as a regional airline with an extensive flight network.

This year Estonia Air will launch new routes and add extra flights to the most important European cities as well as less known regional centres in the Nordic countries. Estonian Air currently offers direct flights to 24 destinations in Europe, Scandinavia and CIS countries. The airline recently announced the new destinations it will fly to from spring, incl. Helsinki, Riga, Jyvaskyla, Hannover, Vienna, Venice, Joensuu, Kajaani and Tbilisi.