Latvian minister accused of hiding information about Kariņš’s special flights

During efforts to compile information about the special flights Krišjānis Kariņš’s used during this term as Latvian Prime Minister, the Combined List (AS) political party sent a letter to the Civil Aviation Agency on the 28th of November. In it, the party requests information about the free seats in flights that were serviced on days that coincide with dates Kariņš had used private flight services.
A response from the Civil Aviation Agency was received on the 10th of January 2024. The response mentions that information was requested from the following airlines: Air Baltic Corporation, Wizz Air, Ryanair, and LOT Polish Airlines, AS reports.
LOT Polish Airlines informed Civil Aviation Agency that flight Nr. LO783 that left Warsaw for Riga at 13:55 on the 19th of January 2022 had 52 free seats, and the same-day flight Nr. LO784 Riga-Warsaw flight that left at 14:40 had ten free seats.
Air Baltic Corporation informed the Civil Aviation Agency that “the requested information, including information regarding capacity of specific flights is considered sensitive and Air Baltic Corporation believes disclosure of such information may adversely affect the competitiveness of the air carrier,

which is why Air Baltic Corporation is unable to provide the requested information”.

AS believes Air Baltic Corporation’s refusal to provide information is unjustified and, potentially, politically motivated. Air Baltic Corporation is a capital association whose biggest shareholder is the Latvian state, which holds 97.97% of shares. The shareholder’s representative is Ilonda Stepanova, who is the state secretary to the Ministry of Transport.
AS believes the decision to hide information and attempts to interfere with the audit intended to verify whether or not state budget funds were misused are unacceptable. This is why the party’s deputies have turned to Minister of Transport Kaspars Briškens, asking him to provide answers to the following questions: is it an acceptable practice for Air Baltic Corporation to avoid providing Saeima deputies with the information requested by them; whether the Minister of Transport Kaspars Briškens supports and considers such actions of Air Baltic Corporation acceptable; and whether the minister considers the requested information to be commercially sensitive.
If the minister does believe such information should not be provided to Saeima deputies, he is asked to explain, considering that LOT Polish Airlines did provide the requested information in full amount.
As previously reported, the costs of Latvian delegations to various summits of the European Council, which were covered from the EU budget, reached EUR 557 274 between 2019 and 2022, lsm.lv reports.
This was mentioned in the information provided by General Secretariat of the Council of Europe to the programme “Kas notiek Latvijā?” [What’s happening in Latvia?].
During this period of time there were a total of 15 meetings of European leaders. All of them were attended by then the Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš (New Unity) together with a delegation. Members of the delegation travelled to those meetings using private flights. Information about all European Union member states indicates the amount paid for Latvia was the biggest one, reaching more than one-fifth of all payments, lsm.lv reports.
“During my term and Prime Minister, I worked honestly in the interests of the state. There were two unexpected crises during my term: the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine,” says the Minister of Foreign Affairs, former Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš.

According to him, the pandemic kicked the world out of its usual rhythm,

including air traffic: people travelled less during the pandemic, and airlines were forced to reduce the number of flights. Their regularity did eventually recover, however.
“When the threat of the pandemic calmed down at the beginning of 2022, Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine started. It’s important to stress that the government’s work did not stop once this whole time. Contacts during the pandemic were maintained using video conferences. Eventually we went bank to meeting in person. For the whole time I maintained active contacts with my colleagues in other countries, including Germany, Britain, Canada, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Poland, Sweden and other countries. The President of France is not only the country’s top official but also the head of the country’s executive power, similarly to the US President. It was in the interest of our country to not only keep NATO and the European Union (EU) countries together in all these circumstances but also to provide support to Ukraine in the fight against Russia, as well as to ensure military security itself with the support of allies. The decisions made were not self-evident,” Kariņš explained.
Also read: Latvian PM delegation’s private flights cost state budget EUR 600 000
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