The Estonian government is in talks with a well-known industry investor for Nordica (ND, Tallinn Lennart Meri), the potential buyer has confirmed exclusively to ch-aviation while adding that the talks are expected to last "weeks, not months".

Owner of Jettime (JP, Copenhagen Kastrup), Lars Thuesen told ch-aviation that he is indeed the prospective investor that has been alluded to in recent media reports.

"I can confirm that I am, and have been for a while, in contact with the present owner of Nordica/Xfly (the government of Estonia) about a potential acquisition," he said, adding that the potential acquisition is not related to any of his other airline interests.

An internal memo sent to Nordica’s employees on October 11 and seen by ch-aviation also revealed Thuesen as the investor. The memo adds that “the contract has not yet been signed” and that talks will continue this week.

Earlier, the CFO of Nordic Aviation Group AS, dba Nordica, confirmed exclusively to ch-aviation that an investor had submitted a formal offer to purchase the carrier.

Nordica, and its subsidiary, Xfly (Estonia) (EE, Tallinn Lennart Meri), were put in a difficult position when they lost their largest ACMI contract with SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup).

Besides being a non-executive board member at Jettime (and its owner), Thuesen is a member of the supervisory board at airBaltic (BT, Riga) and has multiple other investments, according to his Linkedin profile.

"With XFly having been released from a very burdensome long-term contract for more than 90% of its production, it is now, in my opinion, potentially very well placed to take advantage of an increasingly strong ACMI market in the years to come," Thuesen said in a written statement sent to ch-aviation.

The investor added that "it's a race against time" to secure business in the low season. "Xfly are working hard on this and many interesting opportunities have arisen since the main customer decided to leave some three weeks ago," he noted.

Nordica’s fleet comprises a single A320-200 whereas Xfly’s fleet consists of six ATR72-600s and eight CRJ900ERs.

Four aircraft active as of November, more by end of season

Last week, Estonian Minister of Infrastructure Vladimir Svet (SDE) stated that the main issue with Nordica was its SAS contract. “It is the contract which prevents Nordica from submitting its annual financial report, as the auditors believed it to be problematic, and without an auditor's opinion, it is impossible to present a report,” he stated.

Meanwhile, Nordica CEO Remco Althuis said at a press conference on October 10 that he believes all eight aircraft will be leased by the end of the winter season. The SAS contract formally ends on November 1.

"Some contracts will definitely start as early as November 1. We hope that the number of contracts will increase gradually so that in December and January, more and more aircraft will be in operation. And by spring, all eight will be," Althuis stated and added it is now crucial to “survive the winter”. He expects four aircraft will be leased by November and the rest later.

Nordica has yet to submit its 2023 annual report, but Althuis stated he expects it to be published within the next two weeks.