OREANDA-NEWS. March 07, 2012. Latvian airline airBaltic today announced a business reshaping plan to return the airline to profitability and sustainable future development at North Hub Riga, which links the Baltic region with destinations in Europe, Middle East and Russia/CIS.

Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic: “In the past few years airBaltic achieved unprecedented growth that turned Riga into the only functioning transit hub in the Baltic region. However, it came at a cost to the airline. airBaltic has now been stabilised. Currently, we are focusing on reshaping our business, to achieve improvements of LVL 330 million in the next five years, and return to profitability in 2014.”

The new business plan, airBaltic ReShape, outlines the future development of the carrier, including the fleet modernisation, cost optimisation, operational efficiency, revenue enhancement and network improvements.  By implementing airBaltic ReShape, the carrier plans improvements of LVL 330 million in the five years 2012-2016. airBalticReShape aims to return the carrier to profitability in 2014.

airBaltic will modernise its fleet to operate two types of aircraft in the future – Bombardier Q400 Next Gen turboprop for regional flights, and either Airbus 319 or Boeing 737 New Generation. The modernised fleet will allow airBaltic to operate more efficiently and retain focus on affordable tickets to Europe, Middle East, Russia/CIS, and increase flight frequencies to the highly demanded destinations.

airBaltic serves 60 destinations from its home base in Riga, Latvia. From every one of these, airBaltic offers convenient connections via North Hub Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, CIS and the Middle East.