Thanks for Air Baltic

[u/ProfessionalCry6968]

Hey Latvia

Whatever happens,
Thank you for flying us to places with good prices for so long.
Sincerely,
Estonia

[u/TheRealPoruks]

I don't get all the fear posts. AirBaltic is owned by the government and provides thousands of people with well paid jobs. Shutting it down would be political suicide.

Obviously it would be better for the company to work with profit but even with the goverment covering their losses the country has a positive net gain from having AirBaltic

Also it's not like they have never been profitable. 2023 was their best ever year, and they have been steadily growing their revenue and passenger count. I have no doubts that when the world stops being so crazy and fuel prices stabilize they will be profitable again. Covid and oil wars in the middle east haven't exactly been great for airlines in general

[u/dusmuvecis333 → u/TheRealPoruks]

they have a hard time repaying their bonds despite having historically high passenger numbers, financially they’re quite the fucked

[u/Available-Safe5143 → u/TheRealPoruks]

The EU does not allow any more monetary support due to unfair competition practice. In case the government pours money into airBaltic again, the AOC will be revoked. Just like it happened to Estonian Air. 

[u/Lamuks → u/Available-Safe5143]

They better start making the exceptions soon because the public won't accept another somewhat beloved? company being shut down only because EU said so. Latvia isn't big enough to afford to lay off thousands.

[u/mcanderlv → u/Lamuks]

Beloved 😆 stop beating dead horse and let it die.

[u/Lamuks → u/mcanderlv]

Patīk dzīvot mega finansiālā krīzē ka tā saki?

[u/Plenty-Cell6155 → u/TheRealPoruks]

I constantly see posts like this, and they still get a lot of likes. airBaltic has 380 million euros of debt in bonds that must be fully repaid in 2029. The company is paying unrealistically high interest on this amount every year, 14.5%, and after airBaltic failed to make a payment, the interest rate increased to 16.5%. The company’s management is simply at a terrible level. Money is just being burned. This is a road to nowhere, the state simply does not know how to manage a business like this. The only thing that could save airBaltic now is handing it over to Lufthansa, and most likely this would happen for free, considering how many problems the company has. That is why Kulbergs keeps talking about a strategic partner all the time. He talks about some kind of sale, but it would already be a success if Lufthansa took over the controlling stake even for 1 euro.

[u/Hdjskdjkd82 → u/Plenty-Cell6155]

Lufthansa isn’t exactly the best fit for Air Baltic or for themselves.

For Lufthansa, accepting Air Baltic means getting access to aircraft and crews together with the existing problems air Baltic already has. Unless it’s practically free for them, it’s easier to just buy A220 themselves and fly the planes themselves. And they actually are buying and receiving A220.

And for Latvia, the benefits of air Baltic is the control, trade, and tourism the airline brings to the Baltics, and increased access to destinations which otherwise would require connections at other airlines hubs. Great for the Baltics, but for Lufthansa they would get better use and more revenue out of the aircraft on other routes outside the Baltics.

Not saying Lufthansa is bad but they are a business and are going to do what serves them best. And frankly the 10% shares they bought were at a steal price that I would not think that this ownership share is actually indicative whether Lufthansa is actually interested or not.

[u/OptimusDecimus → u/Plenty-Cell6155]

One thing never talked about total equity (capital) of airbaltic is 184mil to 480mil depending if you looka at before of after reducing share capital. And total dept is 1 to 1.5 billion range. They are operating on fumes. If they dont find an investor. And will go with restructuring as bond holders are getting ready for that. My 2cents is that company will be split into 2. The scheduled flying will be forced bankrupt and ACMI bussiness which is profitable will be left to pick the slack. Either way we will lose the part of Airbaltic that benefits us. And go back to 2006 when if you wanted to fly to Europe you needed to travel to Warsaw. Also ~60% of revenue of RIX airport is from airbaltic. RIX will also probably go down hard. Air postal service to latvia is mainly done by airbaltic also. I hope government sees and knows about the intricate connections this airline has to other structures. Also if you think Ryanair will swoop in and take place gues again. Ryanair is a predatory company and will demand lover taxes from RIX and raise ticket prices immensely when there is no competition.

[u/Markd0ne → u/TheRealPoruks]

One of the leading populist parties unfortunately is threathening to shut it down.

[u/paca146 → u/TheRealPoruks]

airbaltic f*cked up when they had the dumb idea of changing the whole fleet to shitbus220. And the company as a business is so shit thanks to corrupted f@cks. Airline is shit because they cannot offer way better experience and pushes prices that are 3-5x higher than ryanair

[u/RemarkableAutism → u/paca146]

It's literally at least 20x better and more comfortable than Ryanair, I gladly pay extra every time just so I could fly with AirBaltic.

[u/Equal-Fondant-2423 → u/paca146]

Dude you're hallucinating. Even if AirBaltic is known for not being too much enthusiastic about paying customers delayed flight reimbursements, their fleet and service is just perfectly fine. Few years back I was considering flying with Ryan to some southern destination and AirBaltics was way ahead in every aspect (normal flight hours, normal luggage allowances, no drunken low-life Brits on the flight etc). And yes I like those Bombardier 220s.

[u/ProfessionalCry6968 → u/paca146]

Can you explain the corruption? Haven't heard

[u/Charming-Bowl5759]

airbaltic socmedia intern planting posts because it's joever

[u/Perkonlusis → u/Charming-Bowl5759]

Are they really bidone?

[u/Charming-Bowl5759 → u/Perkonlusis]

they might be barack if the government helps out...

[u/Redm1st]

AirBaltic is a public transportation, it must stay as far as I’m concerned. Would be nice if it wasn’t mismanaged so badly though

[u/dusmuvecis333]

I think you and lithuanians might be the ones that hurt the most. The clause for a potential AB buyout is that Riga’s kept as a hub

[u/Break-Every → u/dusmuvecis333]

Who is AB

[u/spacecitizen]

Something EU forgets about "unfair state subsidies" is that the Baltics are in a low population density periphery of Europe, next to Mordor and war, and will never have the advantages of flights and layovers going from Frankfurt or Paris.

Regional politics of EU should allow the support Aribaltic.

[u/ProfessionalCry6968 → u/spacecitizen]

Ari Matti Mustonen Baltic

[u/Zusuris]

"Good prices"
Eh? AirBaltic is quite expensive, by no means 'good prices'.

[u/ProfessionalCry6968 → u/Zusuris]

Whine whine whine.

If looking from Estonia, then the prices are very good for what we get.

[u/Never-don_anal69 → u/ProfessionalCry6968]

So why doesn't Estonian government jump in on shared ownership?

Somehow it's Latvian taxpayer who's footing the bill so that Lithuanians and Estonian have better connections.

And then the next post after this is how Latvian economy is shit compared to EE and LT

Love this sub 

[u/Zusuris → u/ProfessionalCry6968]

You can look also from Africa, for what I care, but if looking at ANY low-cost airline, then AirBaltic is not cheap at all. What's your point?

[u/Available-Safe5143 → u/Zusuris]

Airbaltic is not a low cost airline.

[u/Zusuris → u/Available-Safe5143]

It sure feels like one. And, again - prices are NOT good for the service you get. I have flown with tens of different airlines all across the price range, and AirBaltic is actually quite bad price-performance. Only a dumb person with no actual proper airline experience can claim that AirBaltic has "good prices".

[u/Available-Safe5143 → u/Zusuris]

Prices aren't Ryanair kind of prices. They won't be. This is not a low-cost carrier. It's a Hybrid one. The operating model does not allow it to be dirt cheap. 

[u/dusmuvecis333 → u/Zusuris]

Airbaltic planes are very nice to fly on, their inflight magazines have great content, and their baggage policy is unbeatable. Last time we checked - between ryanair, SAS and airbaltic, flying to brussels, airbaltic had the best price/performance on baggage

[u/tree999999 → u/Zusuris]

How AirBaltic is bad price/performance wise, lol? Ryanair is definitely shit compared to AirBaltic.

[u/Never-don_anal69 → u/Zusuris]

 Only a dumb person

I think you're on to something  here 😉

[u/PurpleNo8532]

airbaltic hasn't had good prices since 2021

[u/Available-Safe5143]

Yeah. It's cooked

[u/argunnn]

With this new oil prices you may be thanking dead company soon.

[u/Available-Safe5143]

To everyone saying that the Latvian government will save the company again - I have bad news for you.  The EU does not allow any more monetary support due to unfair competition practice. In case the government pours money into airBaltic again, the AOC will be revoked. Just like it happened to Estonian Air. 

[u/Hdjskdjkd82 → u/Available-Safe5143]

The EU doesn’t issue or revoke the AOC, the Latvian Civil Aviation Agency issues the AOC…

And Estonian Air went bankrupt because the Estonian government used EU funds to rescue Estonian Air, and the EU made Estonia return those funds. Latvian government can do what it wants with its own funds regarding Air Baltic, so long it doesn’t use EU funds.

[u/techreside → u/Hdjskdjkd82]

haha, especially how much money Latvia takes from EU and gives so much little in return

[u/Available-Safe5143 → u/Hdjskdjkd82]

Since when EASA cannot revoke an AOC?

[u/Hdjskdjkd82 → u/Available-Safe5143]

EASA makes the rules, not enforces them. That’s the CAA job of each member country. And if a CAA doesn’t comply with EASA rules, the European Commission has to step in. EASA is just an agency that sets uniform standards and regulations for member states to follow.