OREANDA-NEWS. April 07, 2014. Although the Estonian national carrier Estonian Air has not yet announced its last year’s loss figure, it is likely to be around 8.1 million euros, roughly 1 million euros more than forecast by the state. Public accountancy Deloitte is examining the implications for the carrier's financial health.

The airline’s supervisory board’s chairman, Jaan Tamm, and member Erki Urva confirmed to Postimees that the loss figure was roughly correct.

The airline’s CEO Jan Palmer did not yet wish to discuss numbers, but said the airline was meeting the targets of its restructuring plan that was presented to the European Commission a year ago.

"If we divide our business into sections, then the principal activity we'd like to continue with in the long term will probably yield a profit," Palmer said.

According to Palmer, the loss is mainly attributable to extraordinary costs and the failure to find enough business for two Embraer 170 aircraft that the airline was hoping to sell.

The auditing company Deloitte is trying to assess the financial situation of Estonian Air. Complicating the matter is that the European Commission has not yet made up its opinion whether the state aid received by Estonian Air was legal or not.

Before the decision, the airline cannot convert the 37-million euro loan it received from the state into equity, which means that the airline’s equity was -14.7 million euros last year, which is illegal according to Estonia’s Commercial Code.

If the Commission agrees that cash given to the airline was illegal state aid, they must be repaid it with interest, which would bankrupt the airline. The decision is expected to be made this fall.