Nordic Aviation Group has acquired its first A320-200 and plans to induct it into ACMI/charter service on July 1, 2022.

In a press release, the Estonian state-owned holding said the acquisition would allow it to expand its ACMI/charter business to a broader range of potential customers.

"After six years of successful operations in the regional CPA/ACMI market, we are ready to enter this much bigger market segment. It provides us with new business opportunities and creates new valuable competencies within our group. Major airlines are more and more focusing on their main competitive business segments and outsourcing regional operations and adding ACMI’s for seasonal peak narrowbody capacities will grow in the future," the chief executive of Xfly (Estonia) (EE, Tallinn Lennart Meri), Jan Palmer, said.

Chief Commercial Officer Anton Önnik added that the airline sees potential to grow its fleet to ten A320s "over the next few years".

The A320 will become the second aircraft on the Nordica (ND, Tallinn Lennart Meri) Air Operator's Certificate following CRJ900 ES-ACD (msn 15276). The carrier said the Airbus would be outfitted to seat up to 180 passengers but refused to identify the unit until later this spring. The remaining nine CRJ900s and eight ATR72-600s operated by Nordic Aviation Group are placed on the Xfly AOC.

Nordica currently operates a single scheduled Public Service Obligation route in Sweden, connecting Stockholm Arlanda with Arvidsjaur and Gällivare for which it wet leases a Fokker 100 from Carpatair (V3, Timisoara). In turn, Xfly is the group's ACMI specialist and operates all its aircraft under a long-term white-label agreement with SAS Scandinavian Airlines.