Riga (Latvia) – Air Baltic is considered one of the most reliable and punctual airlines in the world. Now all 48 of the airline’s aircraft are to be named after cities in the Baltics. The company is holding an online vote on the matter. And the result is extremely risqué.
It is not cities like Riga, Tallinn or Vilnius that are most popular with users – but the holiday town of Kunda (3,500 inhabitants) on the north coast of Estonia is by a huge margin. The reason: In Czech, the word Kunda is used colloquially for a woman’s sexual organ, in short: pussy.
Püssi also rises in popularity
From the Air-Baltic-Voting Czech internet users also got wind of it, shared it diligently on social networks and lo and behold: the Estonian town of Kunda is in first place by a large margin. After initially having only a few votes in 19th place and having little chance of making it into the top 16, it now sits alone at the top and delights the Czechs.
But the race for first place could become exciting again. Because English users have obviously discovered the voting and suddenly the numbers for the 1200-person community of Püssi (Estonia) – which is very similar to the word “pussy” in English and has the same meaning as kunda in Czech.
The Latvian town of Püssi is also very popular
Air Baltic has not yet announced whether it will intervene in the poll results, which are heavily influenced by Czech and perhaps soon English votes. So the question remains whether the small Estonian towns of Kunda and Püssi will actually have their names on the planes of the Latvian fleet.
You can vote for the names of the aircraft every day on the airbaltic.com website
35th anniversary of the Baltic Way
The background to Air Baltic’s action is the 35th anniversary of the so-called Baltic Way. In August 1989, more than two million Balts in the then Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania demonstrated for their independence.
A press release from the airline states: “We will name 48 of our aircraft after Baltic cities, 16 for each of the three Baltic countries: Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. It is an honour to be part of this small but close-knit union and our fleet will bear the names of these Baltic cities with pride.”