The reason for airBaltic's nearly one hundred million euro losses in the first half of the year is not only the shortage of engines, former Transport Minister Talis Linkaits said on the air of the Podrobnosti program on LR-4. This is reported by LSM+. "The story with the engines is quite long, it began during Covid, when the manufacturer was unable to produce the required number of engines on time. It applies not only to airBaltic, but also to other airlines that use Airbus aircraft. If other large aircraft have an alternative, then the type that airBaltic uses – the Airbus A220 – is manufactured specifically with these engines. They are more economical and the best of those produced," Linkaits said. As reported by Delfi, at a meeting with investors, airBaltic CEO Martin Gauss said that the airline's losses are related to the shortage of Pratt & Whitney engines in 2024, as well as depreciation costs due to the full maintenance of the engines ahead of schedule, which is partly due to supply problems. Currently, six aircraft are unable to take off due to a lack of engines. As expected, the problem of engine shortages increased in the second quarter – in the first quarter, only three were missing. This led to a decrease in capacity and, as a result, to a decrease in efficiency and revenue. On air, the host asked whether there were any factors that caused the loss to be so large right now: "I think that engines are not the only thing that causes losses. For me, when reading the airBaltic report, the red light came on even earlier. In the report for the second quarter of this year – one of the most profitable quarters in aviation – we see that the revenue per kilometre of the route network has decreased by 4%. At the same time, the cost per passenger kilometre has increased by 22%. We see that the route network itself does not generate as much money as last year. And the costs, meanwhile, are increasing," Linkaits answered. In his opinion, such indicators make it clear that the airline needs to review its route network and analyze whether there are any unprofitable routes that need to be abandoned. Earlier, aviation expert Tomas Peterson told Estonian public broadcaster ERR that the Latvian national airline airBaltic is approaching financial collapse. In his opinion, airBaltic's business model is wrong, since for an airline of this size, the national carrier model does not justify itself. He compared this to the attempts of the former Estonian national airline Estonian Air to expand, which requires a lot of time and investment. As previously reported, airBaltic operated with a loss of EUR 88.8 million in the first half of this year, in contrast to the profit for the same period last year. Meanwhile, airBaltic's turnover in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period last year increased by 16.5% and amounted to EUR 339.3 million. The Latvian state owns 97.97% of airBaltic shares, and the financial investor, Danish businessman Lars Thusen, through the company "Aircraft Leasing 1" – 2.03%.
