The Latvian airline airBaltic recently published the results of an online vote in which the public was invited to decide on the names of the 48 aircraft in its Airbus A220-300 fleet. Participants had the opportunity to select cities from Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, whose names would be featured on the airline’s aircraft in the future. However, the vote attracted unexpected attention, particularly due to the involvement of Czech internet users, who significantly influenced the outcome.
One of the winning locations is the small Estonian village of Kunda, which received the most votes by a wide margin, largely thanks to the efforts of Czech internet users. Kunda is a tranquil village in northern Estonia with around three thousand inhabitants. However, the Czech interest in this place is less idyllic: in the Czech language, the name of the village is a slang term for the female genitalia. This led to a social media campaign to make Kunda the winner of the vote.
According to preliminary results, Kunda had amassed 265,716 votes by the last day of voting, making it the clear leader among Estonian towns. The city of Püssi followed far behind with 17,788 votes, and the capital, Tallinn, garnered 9,121 votes. These were the last figures from the online poll before airBaltic announced the final results, according to iDnes.cz.
airBaltic responded cautiously to the surprising outcome. In an official statement, the airline acknowledged that different meanings of names in various languages were inevitable.
The competition was launched by airBaltic to mark the 35th anniversary of the Baltic Way—a historic human chain that stretched 600 kilometers from Tallinn via Riga to Vilnius on August 23, 1989, symbolizing the Baltic states’ quest for independence from the Soviet Union. By naming the aircraft after cities in Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, airBaltic aims to honor this significant historical event and strengthen ties between the nations, according to the airline’s CEO, Martin Gauss.
The final list of 48 cities that were successful in the vote includes 16 cities from each of the three Baltic states. However, the exact number of votes received was no longer published on the website.
