The Condor sister company Marabu Airlines is bringing out the hard guns against its former partner Nordica because it has filed a lawsuit for damages worth 9,5 million euros. At the same time, an order was obtained from the court that all shares in Nordica and Xfly were temporarily seized as security.
No other airline hit the headlines last year as negatively as Condor's Estonian sister company Marabu Airlines. For months, the flight schedule was characterized by massive delays, cancellations and chaotic care of the affected passengers. Marabu itself only operated a few machines. The rest was rented by Heston and Nordica, among others. The latter company is owned by the state of Estonia through the Nordic Aviation Group and is to be sold. If no buyer can be found, an alternative option is to file for bankruptcy.
While most airlines in Europe managed to make high profits last year and wet lease aircraft were in high demand, Nordica achieved the feat of flying deep into the red. So low that the company's liquidity is in danger and the Estonian state wants to pull the plug unless a buyer can be found. The planned sales of Nordica and its sister company Xfly have now been blocked for the time being because all shares have been seized due to a court order. This happened at the request of Marabu Airlines, which claimed around 9,5 million euros in damages due to the miserable performance of its former wet lease partner.
The ailing financial situation is said to have played a role in the decision
The argument that the collectability of the claim could be in danger due to Nordica's ailing financial situation may have convinced the responsible judge that both the shares of Nordica and those of its sister company Xfly were provisionally seized. This currently makes it impossible for the Nordic Aviation Group to sell the two aviation companies as required by the government. Added to this is the fact that, according to the court, the goodwill of both companies is considerably lower than the claim asserted by Marabu Airlines.
Nordica doesn't want to let the matter go and launches a verbal response to the public broadcaster ERR. The Condor sister company is accused of “violating good business practices” because, from Marabu Airlines' perspective, it announced the lawsuit through the media. Furthermore, Nordica assumes that the former client made “false statements of fact”.
Nordica communicates chaotically and contradictorily
While Nordica stiffly claimed in a media release that only the shares of its sister company Regional Jet OÖ (“Xfly”) had been confiscated, the responsible court confirmed that these were both those of Nordica and those of Xfly. Nordica also informs us that Marabu would not have been able to start flight operations last year without the support of the Nordic Aviation Group.
“We would also like to emphasize that Marabu faced significant problems when starting operations, many of which had nothing to do with Nordica at all. The post-Covid 2023 period saw a very rapid intensification of global flight operations, affecting many airlines. “The problems included late delivery of aircraft, problems with the availability of spare parts and flight crews, and a lack of sufficient technical competence in maintenance,” Nordica said.
There is also different information about the amount of the seizure. Nordica claims that these would only be shares with a value of 2.700 euros regarding Xfly. It is rejected that the total value would be four million euros. In general, they claim that they have not yet received any official demand from Marabu.
Lawyer Marcus Niin, who represents Marabu Airlines in court, contradicts this: “The court has seized part of the company and estimated its balance sheet value at 3,734 million euros according to the company's own report and is ready to release the part of the company from the seizure if Nordica transfers this amount to a bank account specified by the court to secure the claim. The value of the company is of course not 2.700 euros, but much more - there are over 200 employees, the business turnover was 76 million euros and the assets were 52 million euros.
Marabu's lawyer sharply rejects Nordica's statements
Marabu's representative, Sorainen's lawyer Marcus Niin, explained that Nordica's claim that only 2.700 euros had been seized in connection with Regional Jet was not true, as almost four million euros had been seized.
According to the Marabu lawyer, the reason for the claim for damages is that Nordica did not carry out the contractually agreed services or only carried them out late. As a result, many flights were canceled or Marabu had to rent other wet lease aircraft. The reputation suffered as a result and there was also damage amounting to 9,5 million euros, which Marabu claims to have paid for. Securing the shares would also have been requested due to the publicly known ailing financial situation. The responsible judge approved the application and the seizure had already been carried out.
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