Tallinn to London is one of the few routes out of the Baltic States with more than one carrier left. British easyJet flies to Stansted with the biggest frequency and capacity share leaving Estonia’s flag carrier Estonian air - with just two weekly flights to Gatwick - last. In end of August Estonian air will reduce capacity even more by putting their fresh 90-seated CRJ900 on the route. Already in October Estonian air frequency will be doubled to 4 weekly and weekly seating capacity will reach 360.
Cheapest one-way fares were found on each of the flights from June to August. In addition cheapest possible flight or flight combination was found on price comparison website momondo.com.
The results are clear – Estonian air tickets are about 40% more expensive than easyJet’s. Momondo.com returned interesting results – lowest fares offers easyJet, airBaltic or booth. airBaltic connections at RIX were cheapest in many cases in July and August but easyJets’s direct service in most cases in June, September and October. Estonian air and Czech airlines were cheapest in just few cases. Surprisingly but Finnair - which operates feeder route to HEL - offered the cheapest fare in no cases.
Worse frequencies and worse pricing makes serious concerns about profitability of Estonian air operations. They had put all hopes on introducing the new fuel-efficient CRJ’s so reducing operation costs. Lets hope that bringing frequency to four (1--45-7) will make the service more convenient and Estonian air will - at last - get on feet.
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