OREANDA-NEWS. April 18, 2014. The number of passengers traveling by Estonian Air, the national carrier, was 110,700 in the first three months of the year - nearly a tenth less than the year before, mainly due to restructuring of the company.

There were 2,334 flights in the period, which is 18 percent less than in the same period the previous year, uudised.err.ee reported.

Estonian Air stressed that the results correspond with the company’s restructuring plans.

“The Estonian Air team will do all it can to stick to the course chosen by the company, which will help to take the Estonian national carrier to a sustainable route,” head of the company Jan Palmer said.

In March, Estonian Air had 40,800 passengers, a 10 percent drop compared to the same period last year.

According to Palmer, the company has recently increased its flights on the Amsterdam, Brussels, Stockholm, Oslo, Moscow, St Petersbug and Vilnius routes due to a surge in demand, but has cut down back flights to Kiev due to the crisis in Ukraine.

The restructuring over the past year and a half has seen the company cut a number of staff, including 19 pilots, sell non-essential assets, rent one airplane to Lithuania and say goodbye to the last of its Boeings.