OREANDA-NEWS.January 17, 2012. Estonian Air, Estonia’s national carrier, is planning to increase freight volumes by offering road feeder services in addition to direct flights. The road feeder service is suitable for large-scale transportation of goods, reported the press-centre of Estonian Air.

According to Toomas Orukivi, the Cargo Manager of Estonian Air, the airline must introduce inventive ways to increase freight volumes. „Goods and mail transport has a firm part in our new pragmatic growth strategy, although it represents a small part of the circulation. Our main focus remains serving passengers,“ says Orukivi.

 “The advantage of the air transport is speed. As Estonian Air is flying several times a day to many destinations, the airline can guarantee the delivery of goods within 4-5 hours for instance to Scandinavia as an express service. Today we are able to provide good service to customers whose loads are small and who need high-speed service. In parallel we see the potential of larger cargo transport to the remotest corners of the world,” explained Orukivi.

For transporting large dimension goods Estonian Air is using a road feeder system. Estonian Air is buying the service from truck transportation companies who deliver the cargo on trucks for instance to Frankfurt or Amsterdam, and from there the cargo is flown with partner airlines to Asia or America onwards.

Today the road transport has been simplified in the European Union and Schengen countries and therefore a number of airlines are using the road feed service. The benefit for the customer is the convenience and safety of the service as the big load is delivered to the recipient of goods under the name and liability of the airline.

Estonian Air flies from Tallinn to 25 destinations in CIS, Scandinavia and Europe. The airline has recently announced new destinations for summer season, such as Helsinki, Riga, Jyvaskyla, Hannover, Vienna, Venice, Kokkola/Pietarsaari, Joensuu, Kajaani and Tbilisi. Estonian Air is the biggest operator at Tallinn Airport.

Estonian Air's cargo and mail transport share in serving scheduled flights at Tallinn Airport is forming 30-40%, which is about the same proportion of the share as for passenger services.

For more information please visit www.estonian-air.com,  www.estonian-air.ee/en/service/cargo/ contact Estonian Air Customer Service +372 6401 162 (from abroad) or 16 101 (in Estonia).