TheAirman

Hi there,

I saw a pretty decent D-fare for MUC-ARN on LO via TLL. The flights are actually on Nordica, so do I collect 2000/2500 miles per segment?
Is there anything to watch out for with these LO Nordica flights?

Cheers
TheAirman

oliver2002

They are, for all practical M&M purposes, LO flights. Just like JP marketed/sold Nordica flights a few months ago.

GBM.flights

I flew WAW-TLL and back in Jan. LO flights operated by Nordica. Got miles and executive bonus (all 32 miles )

Reading the magazine as far as I understood it's basically a LO hub in Tallinn with local investors Nordica.
Check the TLL airport website. you'll see a few LO flights not to WAW
http://www.tallinn-airport.ee/en/fli...?type=arrivals

Crews were mixed Estonian/Polish (they spoke English when they had to interact between themselves).
LO service (even the same basket with chocolates)

oliver2002

When Air Estonia went bust, the investors started it again asking JP to market/sell the operation. Recently that contract was given to LO.

marcoos

For all intents and purposes these are LOT flights, including the flights on BMI metal from Copenhagen to Gronigen and Örebro. Even meilenrechner.de shows them as LOT flights.

Nordica does not have its own AOC, so LOT acts as the marketing and operating airline for them. Nordica also uses LOT's booking and check-in systems.

These LO 8xxx flights themselves might be technically operated by:

* LOT's own E175
* Regional Jet's CRJ700 and CRJ900
* BMI Regional's E135/E145
* rarely Carpatair's F100

Regional Jet which owns the whole Nordica-LOT co-branded fleet was a fully-owned Noridca subsidiary, but now is 50%-owned by the Polish airline. This shows the current LOT-Nordica partnership is stronger than the previous one between Nordica and Adria.

Regional Jet also operates some LOT-branded flights between Warsaw and Stockholm.

As long as this arrangement is in place, LOT has two hubs (major at WAW and minor at TLL).

Also, read this message on Nordica's website.

vanaema78

Regional Jet does not own the fleet actually. It is a subsidary of Nordic Aviation and only operates the fleet and is now 50% owned by LOT.

TPJ

All Nordica flights are coded as LO and offer full *A benefits. If the same logic is followed by JP, it might not be a bad thing...

vanaema78

This is only the current situation. TLL-LED is already coded as EE and others are to follow. Will the full *A benefits stay? No idea, probably yes.

Karl Gustav Annus

AFAIK TLL-LED is coded as EE because LO (an Polish airline) has no right to fly direct Estonia - Russia.

Nordica has been trying to be a bit of an ''premium'' (Even the cheapest eco ticket has 1 item Luggage, drinks onboard, free seat selection, *G lounge access etc.) airline from the beginning (Already have Air Baltic on the market). The management has said that joining *A would be very long and expensive process for such an small airline and its much easier (cheaper) to partner with LOT to be in the *A.

oliver2002

Nordica initially gave the EE contract to JP and now to LO. Both had coded the EE flights as full JP/LO service, earning full M&M credit (even HON circle miles for C tickets). ^

vanaema78

While all what you have said is true, this was made with the presumption that eventually the only flights flown under the LO code would be TLL-WAW and the wet leases between WAW and other destinations.

I would guess that eventually Nordica wants to grow to a proper airline with their own booking system and etc. This might be more of a long term plan of course I would be rather dissapointed when the ultimate goal is to be a virtual airline that is a regional subsidiary of LO.

iLied

As I understand this is for the long term because LO has bought 49% of Regional Jet (formerly a fully owned subsidiary of Nordica). It’s true the EE code is only in use because a Polish airline isn’t allowed to fly to Russia from Estonia. If you look, however, at the boards for TLL then it’s got a LO codeshare, which is the EE number with an 8 in front making it a Nordica LO flight number. Nordica own their own fleet and crew and run an Estonian service on board but it did also have to set up quickly to ensure Estonia was connected after OV went bankrupt. I think they are doing what they think is best for them. If you go onto LO’s Estonia page, it talks about a new strategic partner to operate flights out of TLL, so it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement for both sides. LO have a second base and Nordica can fly, albeit within LO’s flight rules.

iLied

I thought Regional Jet did own the fleet? (Or at least lease some aircraft and own others.) It’s all got Estonian registrations. It’s registered under the EE code with the Estonian aviation authority. I’ve had a booking held for WAW-TLL-WAW (which I didn’t book in the end) which said:

Aircraft Owner: LOT Polish Airlines LO (due to LO code, Nordica see it as Regional Jet)
Cockpit crew: Regional Jet
Cabin crew: Regional Jet

I’ve done MUC-TLL-MUC and it does count for M&M although i noticed it took longer than 4 weeks for one flight to get accredited. If you do need to get miles credited then it’s got to be done as if they are pure LO flights due to the LO flight code.

vanaema78

49% of Regional Jet was bought for the price of 1 euro, so it is hard to say that they actually bought anything, the company has no physical assets. The choice between flying as a LO subsidary and as independent airline is up to the management and goverment in the future.

According to the ECAA, all of the 11 planes are operated by Regional Jet OÜ.
5 of them are owned by Transpordi Varahaldus OÜ (goverment investment company) and the 6 others are owned by different leasing companies. I dont know if the leased aircraft are leased straight to Regional Jet or Transpordi Varahaldus.

If anyone has more information, feel free to share.

iLied

Regional Jet OÜ have the EE code, so I believe they have to operate the planes, if they aren't leased out to other operators.

I think they're leased straight to Regional Jet but don't quite me on it!