airBaltic To Improve Result by LVL50 Million in 2012

Today the Latvian national airline airBaltic has announced the results for the first six months of 2012, and is confident about the future, as airBaltic ReShape restructuring programme gathers pace.

Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic: "We are confident about the future, as airBaltic ReShape restructuring programme brings consistently better net results every month. If all ReShape initiatives are implemented as planned, we plan to improve our net result for 2012 by LVL 50 million compared to 2011."

For the January to June period, airBaltic achieved +50% improvement of its net result, compared to the same period a year ago; this is also a better result than originally planned in airBaltic ReShape programme. In the first six months of the year airBaltic operated 23 750 flights, or -15% fewer than a year ago, when the airline operated 27 919 flights. In the first six months of 2012, airBaltic managed to better utilise its available capacities and achieve +1% improvement of the load factor to 72%, and served 1.41 million passengers. airBaltic achieved +8% yield improvement in the first six months of 2012 compared to the same period in 2011, and generated LVL 104.7 million in revenues. The unit revenue, or RASK - revenue per available seat kilometer, was improved by +11% in the January to June period, compared to the same period a year ago.

Earlier this year, airBaltic announced its business restructuring plan airBaltic ReShape to return the airline to profitability and sustainable future development at Riga, which links the Baltic region with destinations in Europe, Middle East and Russia/CIS. 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 serves 60 destinations with direct flights 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.