Court uphold seizure of airBaltic assets

VILNIUS - Lithuania's Court of Appeals has upheld the seizure of almost 200 million litas (57.97 million euros) in assets of Latvia's airline airBaltic and Riga Airport.

However, the court also revoked the order on the seizure of the funds of airBaltic and Riga Airport in banks and overturned prohibitions for the respondents to offer and receive special discounts at the airport, whichLithuania's flagship carrier FlyLAL-LithuanianAirlines strongly objects to.

"In the opinion of the LithuanianCourt of Appeals, the necessity to maintain the seizure of 200 million litas worth of assets is justified by the decision of Latvia's Competition Council on illegal discounts received by airBaltic and anti-competitive actions," the court said in a statement.

AirBaltic representatives said that the company would comply with the decision.

"We respect the decision of the LithuanianCourt of Appeal and will implement it," said Tadas Vizgirda, airBaltic's vice-president and the head of its Lithuanianunit

The seizure was ordered by the Vilnius Regional Court late in September as an interim measure requested by Lithuania's flagship carrier FlyLAL-LithuanianAirlines, which claims to have sustained damages of close to 200 million litas due to favorable conditions extended by Riga Airport to airBaltic, which, as a result, is able to offer lower prices thus gaining unfair competitive advantage.