airBaltic to temporarily decrease capacity by further 30%, reduce fleet and staff

Due to the development of the ongoing Coronavirus crisis in the world and its impact on airBaltic’s network, the company has made a decision to temporarily decrease its overall capacity by further 30% and to temporarily reduce the fleet to a total of 22 operating aircraft between March 29 and May 31, 2020.

Martin Gauss, CEO of airBaltic: “This is the 18^th day of Corona crisis for airBaltic. The health and safety of our employees and the public is airBaltic’s highest priority. The situation is changing very quickly, and we are forced to make some hard but necessary decisions. For now, we have reduced the capacity and cancelled flights, unfortunately, we have to temporally reduce our team as the scale of operation is decreasing significantly. These are temporary measures during the crisis, and we need to be ready to get back on our growth path once the situation improves.”

Between March 29 and May 31, 2020 airBaltic has made a decision to cancel a total of more than 2 000 additional flights. In order for the customer care division of the airline to be able to serve all affected passengers, the cancellations will be carried out over the upcoming week.

Currently, in line with network adjustments, airBaltic is also forced to further temporarily reduce the number of employees by up to 400. The company will seek voluntary solutions, unpaid leave, non-extension of probation time and termination.

airBaltic has a well-developed crisis plan for various economic and operational crises of the company. Since February 28, an action group C19AG has been established at the company, which regularly evaluates the latest situation and takes the necessary measures.

Riga, March 13, 2020