Hi,
I first came to Air Baltic in 2008, and except for a year and a half out of Dublin I have been here ever since. (Truth be told I am off to Flybe in April). Latvia is a nice place the summers are warm and short, the winter grey and long, although you don't have the extreme wind of Ireland or the UK. People are generally nice and welcoming to foreigners, rent is a lot cheaper than the rest of Europe(but it is increasing), groceries are a little bit more expensive than I thought they would be, but the good news is you can enjoy excellent food in most restaraunts for a reasonable price.
The aircraft you will fly are not the newest, but well maintained, the destinations are interesting, some with their own challenges, but an experience you will enjoy. I know most of the Boeing Captains, they are a good group of hard working guys, if you respect them, then you will be welcomed to the team. The First Officers are about 80% new guys in the Line Training Program, ( Basically Pay to Fly ☹️), and from what I hear almost all doing a very good job. Pay and conditions are decidedly average, just bear in mind that you may be on a better salary than a guy who has been with the company for 4 or 5 years, if you join now as Direct Entry Captain, so don't gloat about you salary in front of a veteran Captain.
Roster is the biggest bone of contention in the company, in order to maintain the Rīga hub model, it is necessary to have night stops, and more pointedly short night stops/ split duty. The spilt duty on the Boeing is not as common as the Q400, if you do have to do them it will most likely be HEL, TLL or VNO, typically it will mean an arrival around 00:30, depart around 05:30, ( local times),you do get an hotel, just time enough to close your eye for an hour then get a shower and go, check in is around 22:00, check out 06:50 (local), not the hardest duty in the world, but if you get four in a month, they take their toal on your body. Add to that you will also have quite a few long night stops, typically three days away in VNO and TLL as there is no permanent base in either location.
Financially the company is sound, they have never missed a salary for me, even during the darkest of days, the outlook is positive, and with the new CS300 it can only get better. So why no give it a shot?
If you want to know any more message me, I have nothing to loose, or no axe to grind with the company, so anything I say will be as honest and impartial as possible.