A/S Air Baltic Corporation - In the Black in 2001

In the Black in 2001

airBaltic began the millennium with a new headquarters building at Riga International Airport. A new cargo terminal was opened there in 2001. Jens Helmo Larssen was named company president in June of that year. An SAS veteran, he succeeded Christian Kirchainer, who had led airBaltic since 1999. Bertolt M. Flick, a German, became CEO in early 2002.

The company broke even in 2001, posting its first after-tax profit of LVL 56,000 ($88,000) on revenues of LVL 28 million. About 249,000 passengers were carried during the year, an increase of 14 percent. These gains came in spite of the aftereffects of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, including a significant increase in the cost of insurance.

Passenger count rose slightly in 2002, to about 262,000. During the year, the company introduced new Baltic Shuttle fares. For example, noted Britain's Financial Times, one could fly one-way from Riga to Hamburg for EUR 49. Flights to neighboring capitals Vilnius and Tallinn could be had for just EUR 30 one-way. These were popular with passengers but not with some national civil aviation authorities eager to protect their state airlines. Finland and Austria eventually agreed to the fares but Poland refused.

Another European business center, Amsterdam, was added to the network in November 2002. CEO Bertolt Flick told the Baltic Times the company was growing its tourist business by adding new flights to Berlin and Vienna. At the same time, the company withdrew its weekly Frankfurt flight when Lufthansa began flying to Riga on Sundays. Minsk and Brussels were two other new destinations for 2003, the latter inspired by Latvia's impending entrance into the European Union in May 2004.

The first leased Boeing 737 entered the fleet in late 2003. It replaced an Avro RJ 70 on the Riga-Copenhagen route. Another half-dozen 737s were added in 2004. The company posted a profit of LVL 1.1 million on operating income of LVL 33.5 million in 2003.