Kuressaare, a town on Saaremaa island in Estonia, will gain its first international service in over 10 years when BRA - Braathens Regional Airlines (Stockholm Bromma) commences 2x weekly flights from Stockholm Bromma this summer. The Swedish regional carrier intends to run the service to Saaremaa - Estonia's largest island - between May 15 and September 18.

The 158-nautical mile (292-kilometre) sector will be operated by the carrier's 72-seat ATR72-600. In the past, BRA flew charter flights between Visby and the Estonian island, but this will be the first scheduled service it has flown there. On March 30, BRA will also start a 6x weekly service between Bromma and the Estonian capital Tallinn Lennart Meri.

"We are pleased that in 2020 we will be able to increase the opportunity to take international flights," said BRA's Commercial Manager Ulrika Matsgård. "The route is a complement to our two additional services to the Baltic countries, which we will open at the end of March." In addition to the Tallinn route, a 6x weekly service from Bromma to Riga will commence on March 30.

In December 2019, the Saaremaa Municipality announced that it would allocate EUR150,000 euro (USD166,149) per annum for three years to attract a service from Stockholm to the island.

At the time, the Mayor of Saaremaa Madi Kallas told Public broadcaster ERR: "I am pleased to note that there are airlines in Sweden who are willing to open a route between Kuressaare and Stockholm with some support [from us]."

"There is a plan for two flights a week and the aircraft should have at least 72 seats. We would like to sign the agreement by the end of the year," he said.

According to the ch-aviation schedules module, the only other scheduled service at Kuressaare is a 12x weekly Saartelennuliinid (Tallinn Lennart Meri) service to Tallin, operated by a TransAviaBaltika (KTB, Kaunas International) Jetstream 32.

BRA operates a fleet of 25 aircraft, all of which are wet-leased, the majority of which are from sister companies BRA - Braathens Regional Airways (TF, Trollhättan) and BRA - Braathens Regional Aviation (Malmö). It operates five ARJ-100s and one ARJ-85 which are wet-leased from Regional Aviation. Also, Regional Airways provides BRA with three ATR72-500s and twelve ATR72-600s. Its sole E190 is provided by WDL Aviation (Cologne/Bonn), while Amapola Flyg (HP, Stockholm Arlanda) wet-leases three Fokker 50s to BRA.