Lithuania considers the option to acquire shares in Latvian national airBaltic airline, as announced by Lithuanian Minister of Transport Marius Skuodis on Tuesday, the 9th of January.
“I’ve had two conversations with Latvia’s Ministry of Transport about the option for Lithuania to acquire airBaltic shares,” Skuodis told journalists at Vilnius Airport.
The minister said that if Lithuania bought airBaltic shares, a portion of the airline’s aircraft would relocate to Lithuania.
According to Skuodis, conditions of the deal are being discussed.
“As you are aware, airBaltic is preparing for a public offer this year. We will wait and see if these initial talks could take any specific shape,” added Skuodis.
Lithuanian Minister of Transport mentioned that in the future airBaltic could become an airline of all three Baltic States.
As previously reported, at the beginning of the year Latvian Minister of Transport Kaspars Briškens predicted the initial offer of airBaltic shares, if the process is successful, could take place in the second half of 2024 or the end of the year.
Latvian airBaltic has hired STJ Advisor LLP and Superia Corporate Finance.
The airline’s turnover in 2022 was EUR 500.17 million, which is 2.5 times more when compared to 2021. The company’s losses went down 2.5 times – to EUR 54.219 million.
In nine months of 2023, when compared to the same period of 2022, airBaltic’s turnover went up 40.8%, reaching EUR 510.632 million. In nine months airBaltic operated with profits of EUR 9.122 million, as opposed to losses a year prior.
Latvian state owns 97.97% of airBaltic shares. Danish investor Lars Tussen’s company Aircraft Leasing 1 owns 2.03%.
Lithuania made multiple attempts to create its own national airline. However, those attempts failed, and the country still doesn’t have its own national airline.
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