EU is not third world neither sovietski. Can’t get away with breaking the law or by not paying back a billion
Worst case for Lufthansa to lose the 14 millions to invest for 10%
btw if 10% is 14 millions then the total value is 140 millions? And in debt for a billion?

Of course it isn't. Surely an EU airline can't even get 500 millions of illegal aid due to the strict and fully forced laws. And if (for some miracle) it would happen they must pay back every penny like each and every airline did since the first day of the European Coal and Steel Community. Maybe it would be useful to study the history of a certain LH protege called Polskie Linie Lotnice.

I know first hand the history of Malev, who managed to take state money and went bust when European Commission ordered the return of that money. LH can't interfere with EU laws. For what, not to lose a 14 millions investment?

If you would, you'd call it Malév anyway. And if you ever worked there you know how disfunctional and pathetic an "airline" that was. It well deserved it because of the "lopjunk el mindent, ami nincs lebetonozva" mentality of it's employees, management and the state. It was the best example of "soviestki" existing within the EU which you claim to be impossible.

Why do you think an airline which hires ICAO pilots, has better working conditions or mentality?

There are certain conditions under which the EU Commission is allowed to grant state aid.

So there is a realistic scenario where Latvia is allowed to (partly) forgive debts, the IPO money is used to partly pay back some high interest bonds and AirBaltic ends up with a sustainable level of debt.

IMHO much depends on the political Situation in Latvia and the geopolitical developments in the next months.

Latvians are fuming for their money that funded AB, I don't think any politician will vote to partly forgive the 540 millions to state, (and another 500+ millions to others) even if EU agreed (really doubt)
They managed to get only 14 millions from LH
Few months ago they were advertising sales on tickets and later canceled these flights because they will send 5 aircrafts for ACMI in Uruguay making Latvians fuming more. I think is the least loved company in Latvia

I don’t think the summer flights cancellations are linked to the Uruguayan ACMI, since it will start in winter only.
Even without leasing planes to Uruguay, they would still have had to cancel those summer flights.

My 2 cents is the company will survive for the next 2 years at least, with or without Latvian tax payer money. With LH investing, regardless of the amount, it is sending a positive signal for the IPO, in which BTI will manage to finance itself back to healthier levels.
If the IPO doesn’t go through, they might still survive for a few more months/years by issuing another private bond(s), again thanks to the image of LH group investing. And go on for a few years like that, issuing bonds to repay the previous ones. It’s not healthy but it’s survivable for some time.

Interest of bonds is still rising

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....bec26bdaa.jpeg

The interest is fixed, what's rising is the bond price.

When the price of the bond goes up, like in the graph you show, the overall yield of the bond goes down, meaning less risk and less interests should the issuer require more financing

They added another 118 millions of losses in 2024

https://bnn-news.com/airbaltic-group...st-year-265908

That's unsustainable

Martin Gauss, long-time CEO and chairman of Latvian airline airBaltic, has been dismissed, reports the Ministry of Transport on 7 April.

Following a shareholders' meeting at which the Transport Ministry called for a vote of no confidence in Gauss, airBaltic's Supervisory Board convened an extraordinary Supervisory Board meeting. In view of the shareholders' vote of no confidence, the Supervisory Board decided to dismiss the current Chairman of the Board, Martin Gauss, as of 7 April.

https://eng.lsm.lv/article/economy/t...issed.a594551/

CEO is out....been fired.

Too late, they have accumulated more than a billion on debt, last year added another 118 millions
The same CEO was in Malev before the bankruptcy

Clearly this company is not solvent by any reasonable accounting standard.

I understand there is a bigger political picture but surely something has to give. Firing the CEO is not good enough 🙄

Back in Riga just for holidays this time
AB Cadets only?
Had a chat with a Captain who fell behind, he has hard time with pilots who got hired just having a CPL outside of Airbaltic Academy, like a French lady with 0 hours on turbo prop airplanes, just her CPL from France, while they are advertising only senior first officers positions

I don’t get it, they’re advertising for DEC and experienced FOs for a fast track, but at the same time they will most likely go into reconstruction or bankruptcy… Is it that hard to fill the positions on the A220? If they go under it’s a pretty useless type rating to hold. Anyone who has applied recently and can shed some light?

I've noticed that, over time, airlines on the brink of bankruptcy tend to go on hiring sprees, launch new routes, expand their fleets, and create the impression that they're thriving.
I heard from a friend that the T&C's aren't getting any better, and management is pressuring the crews to tighten their belts.

Nothing new, soviet textbook of hiring nieces and ''nieces'', even in the brink of the financial collapse

AirBaltic stalls IPO until at least the first half of 2025

https://www.reuters.com/markets/airb...st-2024-12-02/

What a circus

Latvian state is looking where is their money and airbaltic asks for more

https://careers.ch-aviation.com/news...atvian-auditor

https://www.ch-aviation.com/news/153...-slips-to-2026

Airbaltic is still 97.97 Latvian state and the 2.03 belongs to Aircraft Leasing Sia

Not for long apparently.
https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/l...e-in-airbaltic

Wording is not that clear, what convertible means?
What I understand is that LH gave to AB 14 millions for the wet leasing deal, that was branded as convertible shares but still AB is 97,5% Latvian State and 2,5% Aircraft Leasing Sia
Still they ask 250 millions from the Latvian state

When asked how much money is needed from the state, which has a 97% stake in the company, Martinovs said that it depends on the shareholder

Senior airBaltic official: company needs around 250 million euros

https://eng.lsm.lv/article/economy/t...euros.a603554/

The French lady in question was hired initially as an office employee. She had her CPL from France and also had a well connected French friend who is a Captain and in few months from office jumped to cockpit
Same with some zero hours people who initially got hired as FI in the academy and very soon went to A220
A lot of back doors

A new commuter option has now been added as a contract option:

Who is her daddy?

Assessment in Riga
 

Do they seriously use a single pilot operation as a check in Riga? Not too focused on CRM I guess…

If you read some pages back you will see that they are only focused on favors, many posts regarding hiring people who don't even have the published initial requirements. Sim check is just a formality

@freeagle in Latin America you can have a Type Rating without any training on type and fly till you crash
Here is the case of 2008 Mexico city Learjet crash

Pilot Martín Olíva and co-pilot Álvaro Sánchez were not certified to operate the Learjet 45. The investigation concluded that both pilots had received fraudulent certifications: Captain Olíva lied about the number of training flights he had made, and had issues on the few training flights he did complete, while Captain Sánchez lied about being a Learjet 45 instructor. Both men had taken advantage of a corrupt system to get false training documents and some unsigned Learjet 45 certification forms from their flight schools. These revelations led Mexican authorities to suspend the licences of both flight schools.

I don't think it worth to bring to Europe pilots like the guys above just for some companies to keep the salaries low

Regular Open days for experienced pilots are organised now, a lot of questions are discussed during these https://careers.airbaltic.com/en/eve...rienced-pilots

1.5h video here:

Wow. They seems to have very ambitious growth plans.
How is this to be financed ?!

Airbaltic lost 118 millions last year, for 2025 have losses so far and they are one billion in debt
Maybe they will fund with the new ACMI deal they offer to Air Serbia or the ACMI to Uruguay that starts this winter

First, they have to pay bankruptcy trustees, the one in the article seeks $236mn

https://www.ch-aviation.com/news/159...from-airbaltic

Yes, I'm sure those Russians will easily collect that debt :ok:.

They can collect it easily after the ACMI deal with Air Serbia.
Four Airbaltic A220s will be based in Belgrade, a Serbian court order is enough to confiscate them for depts
Don't forget that are no sanctions between Serbia and Russia, you can fly direct from Belgrade to Moscow with an Air Serbia flight

I highly doubt that the owner of the hull/engines or the insurer would allow such insanity .