OREANDA-NEWS. Latvian airline airBaltic has appointed Christophe Viatte as Chief Commercial Officer. In his role, Mr Viatte will be responsible for leading airBaltic's future commercial strategy. He will manage all commercial departments including sales, marketing, e-commerce, customer care, product, revenue management, network planning, cargo and partnerships.

Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic: “I am delighted that Christophe is joining our management team. He brings a solid commercial experience that will help airBaltic to build on its success of ReShape business turnaround programme.”

Christophe Viatte said “airBaltic has a strong geographical advantage in the region with its hub in Riga to develop furthermore as bridge connecting Europe with Russia, C.I.S, Middle East and Asia. I am proud and excited to be joining the management team at such a strategic time for the airline's development.”

Mr. Viatte has more than 15 years experience in airline industry especially in the field of revenue management, pricing, network planning and business development. He joins Air Baltic from Czech Airlines where he held the position of Executive Director. In this role, he had responsibility for all network planning and revenue management functions and over the past years, he was active member of a project team that successfully lead to the purchase of 44% Czech Airlines shares by Korean Air in April 2013. Prior to joining Czech Airlines, he also held senior management positions with Malev, Porter Airlines and Air Canada. He holds a Bachelor degree in Management Studies from University of Quebec in Montreal. Mr. Viatte is a Swiss native, aged 40 and he speaks English, French and German.

Christophe Viatte is replacing Michael Grimme, who has decided to pursue new carreer challenges. Martin Gauss, CEO of airBaltic: “Michael was part of the team that made airBaltic ReShape business turnaround programme a success story, and we wish him every success in the future.”

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