Estonian Air recently announced its decision to lower the wages of its pilots and its flight attendants by one third.

As it’s reported by Äripäev online, trade unions do not plan to accept the decision by the carrier, and it has been stated by the chairman of trade union Rauno Menning that the union will turn to the Labour Disputes Committee with a complaint against Estonian Air and, if that will not succeed, the trade union will turn to the court.

Menning also pointed out that this plan has not been discussed in advance with trade union, violating the information and consultation order.

Andrus Aljas, Estonian Air President, justified the wages reduction with the overall economic situation and the decrease in the demand.

Mr. Aljas also said that employees have the right of reducing their work hours correspondingly too but refused to say how much the company would save by cutting the wages of pilots and cabin crew by 30% for three months.

After the news about the cut of wages made by Estonian Air was released, Latvian nation carrier AirBaltic made an important statement, showing the possibility that AirBaltic could be interested in hiring employees who now work for Estonian Air.

“After profitable year 2009 and with a positive outlook for 2010, AirBaltic is expanding its network of direct routes to Western Europe, Scandinavia, Mediterranean Region, and the CIS, and continues to hire more professionals.

AirBaltic offers its staff competitive and stable salaries that correspond international standards. For 2009 AirBaltic has announced 20 million EUR preliminary profit, and achieved 6% passenger growth to 2.75 million passengers.

In 2010, AirBaltic will open at least nine new direct routes from Riga, and has so far announced destinations such as Madrid, Belgrade, Vaasa, Umea, Beirut, and Amman.

The number of direct routes from Vilnius, announced by AirBaltic over the past month, already total 10 – London, Paris, Munich, Berlin, Amsterdam, Rome, Hamburg, Manchester, Dublin, and Oslo.”