National carrier Estonian Air has released its economic results for the first six months of 2012, which indicate the company made a 14.9 million euro loss, reported uudised.err.ee.
The airline, which has at various times pledged to become profitable as early as this year but admitted last month that it was far off that pace, had been under pressure to disclose an exact figure.
The loss came despite the fact that sales revenue (43.9 million euros) grew 24 percent compared to the figure for the first six months of 2011. Under CEO Tero Taskila, Estonian Air has spent the last year repla-cing its fleet with new planes and adding regional routes to smaller-market cities.
Estonian Air said an increase in fuel prices was the primary factor for failing to perform at the expected level.
Economic Affairs Minister Juhan Parts has expressed disappointment in the half-year operating results.
Estonian Air is 97 percent owned by the Estonian state. The acquisition of the majority holding in 2010 cost 17.9 million euros. Last year, the government decided to inject 30 million euros into the company over the next two years.
