Riga. The Latvian airline airBaltic in 2017 was able to significantly grow its operating earnings in 2017 (known as EBIT) by 16.8 million euros, reaching a total of 20.2 million euros. The EBIT Margin for the airline was 5.8%. At the same time, airBaltic improved its revenue by 22% to a figure of 347.7 million euros, and increased the number of passengers carried by 22%. Net income increased by 3.4 million to 4.6 million euros when compared to the year before.

Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic: “Last year marks a record year for airBaltic being the clear number one airline in the Baltic region. We are ready to take the next step by developing and improving our route map and by adding more new, state-of-the-art Bombardier CS300 jet aircraft to our fleet.”

“airBaltic plays an important role in ensuring air connectivity to Latvia. As a result, the impact of the aviation industry on the Latvian economy has increased in comparison to the previous years. Our aim is to continue securing our position as the market leader in the Baltic region by further improving connections between the Baltic States and the rest of the world,” Gauss added.

airBaltic serves over 70 routes from Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius, offering the largest variety of destinations and convenient connections via Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, the CIS and the Middle East. For summer 2018, airBaltic has introduced eight new destinations from Riga to Malaga, Lisbon, Split, Bordeaux, Gdansk, Almaty as well as Sochi and Kaliningrad. In addition, airBaltic launched a new direct route connecting Tallinn and London. A complete schedule of airBaltic flights can be found on the company's website at www.airbaltic.com.