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airBaltic, legally incorporated as AS Air Baltic Corporation, is the flag carrier of Latvia, with its head office on the grounds of
Riga International Airport Riga International Airport ( lv, Starptautiskā lidosta "Rīga"; ) is the international airport of Riga, the capital of Latvia, and the largest airport in the Baltic states with direct flights to 76 destinations as of November 2019. It serves ...
in Mārupe municipality near Riga. Its main hub is Riga, and it operates bases in Tallinn, Vilnius and
Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population ...
.


History


Early history

Baltic International Airlines (BIA) was a Latvian and US joint venture company owned by SIA Baltic International Airlines whose main airport was Riga International Airport . It was founded in June 1992, after the US-based private company Baltic International USA (BIUSA) failed to buy a part of the state-owned Latvian national airline
Latavio Latavio (Latvian Airlines) was an airline based in Riga International Airport (RIX), Riga, Latvia. It was founded in 1992, after emerging from Aeroflot. The fleet generally consisted of Soviet-made Aeroflot airplanes. AirBaltic replaced it as ...
. In the joint venture, the Latvian government owned 60%, while BIUSA owned 40% of the property. After unsuccessful privatization attempts, Latavio was declared insolvent from October 1995. It was liquidated and the Latvian government together with the Latvian-US joint stock company Baltic International Airlines created a new national airline airBaltic. The airline was established as Air Baltic on 28 August 1995 with the signing of a joint venture between Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) and the Latvian state. Operations started on 1 October 1995 with the arrival of the first Air Baltic aircraft, a Saab 340, at Riga, and that afternoon, the plane made the first passenger flight for Air Baltic. In 1996, the airline's first Avro RJ70 was delivered; and Air Baltic joined the SAS frequent flier club as a partner. 1997 saw the opening of a cargo department and, in 1998, the airline's first Fokker 50 plane was delivered. The adopted livery was mainly white, with the name of the airline written in blue on the forward
fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...
, the 'B' logo being heavily stylized in blue checks. The checker blue pattern was repeated on the aircraft tailfin. In 1999, airBaltic became a joint stock company; it was previously a
limited liability company A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability ...
.Company history
" AirBaltic. Retrieved on 22 November 2011.
All of their Saab 340s were replaced by Fokker 50s. By September, the airline had begun operating under the European Aviation Operating Standards, or JAR ops. Air Baltic welcomed the new millennium by introducing new uniforms and opening a cargo centre at Riga's airport. The first Boeing 737-500 joined the fleet in 2003, and on 1 June 2004, Air Baltic launched services from the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, initially to five destinations. In October 2004, Air Baltic was rebranded as AirBaltic. Their present livery consists of an all-white fuselage and lime tailfin. AirBaltic.com is displayed on the forward upper fuselage, and the word "Baltic" is repeated in blue on the lower part of the tailfin. In December 2006, the first Boeing 737-300 joined the fleet and was configured with winglets. In July 2007, AirBaltic introduced an online check-in system. It was the first online check-in system in the Baltic states. In the spring of 2008, two long-haul
Boeing 757 The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the 727 (a trijet), received its first orders in August 1978. The prototype completed its maid ...
s joined the existing AirBaltic fleet. On 10 March 2008, it was announced that in the next three years the airline would acquire new aircraft, experiencing the largest fleet expansion in the company's history. The new additions will be next generation De Havilland Dash 8-400 aircraft. AirBaltic had strong links with SAS, which owned 47.2% of the airline, and operated frequent flights to SAS hubs in
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...
,
Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
and
Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...
. Some of AirBaltic's products and services are still shared with SAS, including co-ordinated timetabling and shared airport lounges. AirBaltic is not a member of any airline alliance but does have codeshare agreements in place with several Star Alliance member airlines and others. AirBaltic had secondary hubs at Vilnius Airport and Tallinn Airport. The majority of the routes commenced from Tallinn were cancelled shortly after opening, leading to complaints from the Estonian Consumer Protection Department. In January 2009, SAS sold its entire stake in the company (47.2% of the airline) to Baltijas aviācijas sistēmas Ltd (BAS) for 14 million
lats Lats or LATS may refer to: * Latissimus dorsi muscle * Latvian lats, former currency of Latvia * Latin American Test Symposium of test and fault tolerance technologists * Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme, a UK scheme to reduce biodegradable wast ...
. BAS was wholly owned by Bertolt Flick (President and CEO) until December 2010, when 50% of BAS shares were transferred to Taurus Asset Management Fund Limited, registered in the Bahamas.


Development since 2010

In August 2011, AirBaltic requested more than 60 million lats in capital as its losses continued to mount, and suffered speculation about its financial position and political scandals throughout 2011. In mid-September 2011, the company announced plans to lay off around half its employees and cancel around 700 flights a month to avoid possible grounding. The company also announced that a mystery investor was willing to pay 9.6 million euros for an additional 59,110 shares. On 4 October 2011, the plans were annulled in order to make the necessary investments in the airline's capital. The government of Latvia and BAS agreed to invest around 100 million lats in the airline's share capital in proportion to their stakes in AirBaltic. In connection with the agreement, Flick stepped down as long-term President and CEO of the airline. Martin Gauss, former CEO of Hungarian airline Malév, became the new CEO. AirBaltic had made an announcement on 23 September 2010 that it would establish a new secondary hub at Oulu Airport, but in early 2012 it was confirmed that the Oulu hub plans had been cancelled due to AirBaltic's financial problems. The cost-cutting program, initiated by AirBaltic which aims to return to profitability in 2014, scored better than planned results in 2012, by narrowing its losses to €27.2 million, from €121.5 in 2011. The state's shareholding had been 99.8% since 30 November 2011, following the collapse of a bank linked with a finance package negotiated for the airline, but on 6 November 2015 it was reported that the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers had approved plans to sell 20% of airBaltic to German investor Ralf Dieter Montag-Girmes for €52 million and agreed to invest a further €80 million in the airline. The total of €132 million of fresh capital for the carrier is intended to spur its Horizon 2021 business plan and fleet modernisation. Following the closure of Air Lituanica and Estonian Air respectively in June and November 2015, it is alongside Nordica, one of two flag carriers in the
Baltic countries The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Euro ...
. The Bombardier CS300 delivery was much anticipated by airBaltic since this new aircraft type was originally planned to replace most of the airline's Boeing 737-300s and Boeing 737-500s and now will replace all by 2020. The delivery of the CS300 happened on 29 November 2016, at 2 am ET. On 28 November, Bombardier and airBaltic held a ceremony in Mirabel, Quebec, Canada for the first delivery of the CS300. At 1:30 am, shortly before the scheduled departure, an oil leak from an engine was spotted. It delayed the departure, but at 2:23 am ET, the aircraft was now airBaltic's property. On board the inaugural flight, there were 18 people, including 6 pilots: 3 from Bombardier, and 3 from airBaltic. At 4:13 am ET, after a delay of over 2 hours, flight BT9801 took off en route to Stockholm. The airline received two CS300 in 2016 and expects to receive six in 2017, eight in 2018 and four more in 2020. AirBaltic was looking for opportunities to replace its
Q400 The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was later bought by Boeing in 1988, then by Bombardier in 1992; then by ...
turboprop fleet, and Bombardier and Embraer were viewed as potential future aircraft suppliers, with possible deliveries of 14 new aircraft beginning in 2020. On 26 September 2017, AirBaltic announced it would buy at least 14 additional CSeries aircraft from Bombardier before the end of 2018; it planned to switch to an all-CSeries fleet by the early 2020s. Additional orders by AirBaltic were announced by Bombardier on 28 May 2018 and included 30 CS300 with options and purchase rights for a further 30 CS300.
Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...
purchased a 50.01% majority stake in the CSeries program in October 2017, with the deal closing in July 2018; the aircraft family was subsequently renamed the Airbus A220. AirBaltic temporarily suspended operations on 17 March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and flights only restarted on a limited basis from 18 May 2020. On 14 December 2021, AirBaltic announced that its first secondary hub outside of the Baltic countries will be founded in Tampere Airport in May 2022. In October 2022, AirBaltic launched a NFT collection with benefits for the airBaltic Club loyalty programme.


Corporate affairs

The current head office at Riga Airport opened in 2016.


Ownership

airBaltic is a joint-stock company, with current shareholders (as of April 2021):


Business trends

The airline's full accounts have not always been published regularly; figures disclosed by AirBaltic via various publications are shown below (for years ending 31 December):


Destinations

airBaltic operates direct year-round and seasonal short-haul flights from Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius, mostly to metropolitan and leisure destinations within Europe. Though they do not operate long-haul flights, they codeshare with partners in all three airline alliances to allow through-ticketed long-haul flights.


Codeshare agreements

airBaltic has codeshare agreements with the following airlines: *
Aegean Airlines Aegean Airlines S.A. ( el, Αερογραμμές Αιγαίου Ανώνυμη Εταιρεία ''Aeroporía Aigaíou Anónimi Etairía'', ) is the flag carrier airline of Greece and the largest Greek airline by total number of passengers carr ...
* Air France * Air Malta *
Air Serbia Air Serbia (stylised as ''AirSERBIA''; sr, / ) is the flag carrier of Serbia. The company's headquarters is located in Belgrade, Serbia, and its main hub is Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport. The airline was known as Jat Airways until it was r ...
*
Austrian Airlines Austrian Airlines AG, often shortened to Austrian, is the flag carrier of Austria and a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. The airline is headquartered on the grounds of Vienna International Airport in Schwechat where it also maintains its ...
* Azerbaijan Airlines * Belavia *
British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...
* Brussels Airlines *
Cyprus Airways Cyprus Airways (Greek: Κυπριακές Αερογραμμές) is the flag carrier airline of Cyprus, based at Larnaca International Airport. It commenced operations on 1 June 2017. History Cyprus Airways resumed operations in 2016 after wi ...
*
Czech Airlines Czech Airlines j.s.c. (abbreviation: ČSA, cz, České Aerolinie, a.s.) is the flag carrier of the Czech Republic. Its head office is located in the Vokovice area of Prague's 6th district and its hub is Václav Havel Airport Prague. The c ...
*
Emirates Emirates may refer to: * United Arab Emirates, a Middle Eastern country * Emirate, any territory ruled by an emir ** Gulf emirates, emirates located on the Persian Gulf ** Emirates of the United Arab Emirates, the individual emirates * The Emirat ...
* Etihad Airways * Georgian Airways *
Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese language, Aragonese and Occitan language, Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a pe ...
* Icelandair * ITA Airways *
KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally ''Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.'' (literal translation: Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amste ...
* LOT Polish Airlines * Lufthansa * Scandinavian Airlines * TAP Air Portugal * TAROM * Ukraine International Airlines *
Uzbekistan Airways JSC Uzbekistan Airways, operating as ''Uzbekistan Airways'' ( uz, Oʻzbekiston Havo Yoʻllari, ; russian: Узбекские Авиалинии), is the flag carrier airline of Uzbekistan, headquartered in Tashkent. From its hub at Islam Kari ...


Fleet


Current fleet

, the airBaltic fleet consists of a single aircraft type:


Historical fleet


Livery

The original livery was painted on Avro RJ70s and had a white fuselage. The original airBaltic colour scheme, blue and white, was painted on the engines and the vertical stabiliser. The second-generation livery also had a lime green wingtip and vertical stabiliser; however the logo was changed to airBaltic.com and the word airBaltic was painted on the engines, which were in their original metallic colour. Until December 2019, the livery consisted of a white fuselage and lime green vertical stabiliser, wingtips and engines. In December 2019, the rear fuselage below the vertical stabilizer was also painted in lime green, with the tail cone remained white. The logo, stylised 'airBaltic', is painted in dark blue on the fuselage across the windows and on the underside of the aircraft. This livery is mainly used on A220s. In order to represent the three Baltic states, three of the A220s have been painted in a series of national flag liveries - one each for Latvia,
Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, an ...
and Lithuania.


Services


Frequent-flyer programme

The airline's frequent flyer programme is called airBaltic Club. Travellers can earn 'pins' and collect stamps while travelling and receive various rewards. There are three levels: Club level, Executive level and VIP level, each with different reward structures. Previously the airline used the SAS EuroBonus frequent flyer programme,


In-flight services

On most flights, airBaltic offers a
buy on board Buy may refer to a trade, i.e., an exchange of goods and services via bartering or a monetary purchase. The term may also refer to: Places * Buy (inhabited locality), any of several inhabited localities in Russia * Burlington-Alamance Regional ...
menu offering food and drinks for purchase.


Accidents

* A drunk airBaltic crew including a co-pilot at seven times legal alcohol limit stopped by the police in Oslo before a flight in 2015. The second officer was sentenced to six months' jail while the captain and flight attendants also faced proceedings after a tip-off stopped them from taking charge of flight from Norway. * On 17 September 2016, an airBaltic de Havilland Dash 8-400, registered YL-BAI, performing flight BT-641, landed at Riga without its nose gear due to problems with the nose gear. * On 6 December 2017, due to heavy winds and a slippery surface, an airBaltic Boeing 737-500 slid off a taxiway after landing in Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport. *On 3 December 2021, due to heavy snowfall, an airBaltic Airbus A220-300 (YL-CSE) slid off the runway after the landing at Riga Airport from Stockholm (flight BT102).The Latvian airline airBaltic confirms that on December 3, 2021 during a heavy snowfall its flight BT102 from Stockholm to Riga performed with Airbus A220-300 YL-CSE aircraft slid off the runway after the landing at Riga Airport.
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References


External links

* **
Interview With CEO Of airBaltic Martin Gauss
{{DEFAULTSORT:Airbaltic Airlines of Latvia Airlines established in 1995 Latvian brands Association of European Airlines Airlines for Europe Companies based in Riga European Regions Airline Association Government-owned airlines SAS Group Articles which contain graphical timelines Latvian companies established in 1995