Ex-Estonian Air flight crew drop Nordica lawsuit

A five-year legal dispute between Estonian flag carrier Nordica (ND, Tallinn Lennart Meri) and a group of former employees at its bankrupt predecessor Estonian Air (OV, Tallinn Lennart Meri) has ended in resolution, the news agency BNS and local broadcaster ERR reported on June 29.

As part of a ruling at the Supreme Court of Estonia, the former staff signed an agreement with flight-crew provider Nordic Crew Management (NCM) and agreed to drop the case, annulling any previous court judgements.

“The market for aviation personnel in Estonia is very limited and any long-term tensions between employers and employees are detrimental to all parties. So we decided to conclude the litigation in order to be able to enter into an agreement with Nordic Crew Management,” said Kalle-Kaspar Sepper, a lawyer at Sirel & Partners who represented the employees.

While Nordica is a virtual carrier, its subsidiary Xfly (EE, Tallinn Lennart Meri) has been using Nordic Crew Management’s services since it and its parent commenced operations in 2015. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, Xfly, formerly known as Regional Jet, currently operates a fleet of seven ATR72-600s, four CRJ900ERs, and six CRJ900LR.

The crew management firm, which was registered on September 28, 2015, three days after Nordica was founded, pays a fee to its personnel, and although the specifics of the case were not disclosed it is understood that the dispute related to this fee.

Its general manager, Tõnis Lepp, told reporters after the court ruling that the fee is sizeable but the details of the company’s contracts are confidential.

“As the head of a business, I cannot disclose detailed financial matters. NCM does not operate in a vacuum, we also have competitors. What’s important is that no one is judging anyone anymore and that we can operate flexibly and efficiently in the Estonian aviation personnel market,” he stressed.

Asked about the origins of the fee, he said that Regional Jet had contributed to financing it.

“As Regional Jet was interested in restarting operations and wanted to ensure the necessary manpower for itself, we entered into a corresponding agreement with it. The details of this agreement are confidential, but I can confirm that without the agreement between NCM and Regional Jet it would have been very difficult for NCM to reach this agreement, in which case we would have had to look for other solutions,” he said.

With the coronavirus crisis, commercial aviation in Estonia has reached a point where both employers and employees have to cooperate again without any previous resentments, he concluded, saying: “In the near future, direct connections from Tallinn to key points for Estonian passengers must be restored. As airlines, including Xfly, require large numbers of flight crew, old hatchets must be buried.”

Nordica and Xfly did not immediately respond to ch-aviation’s request for comment.