Seeking investors for airBaltic is a more appropriate course of action at the moment than going public - Aseradens

RIGA - Currently, finding investors for Latvia's national airline airBaltic is a better option than going public, Finance Minister Arvils Aseradens (New Unity) told Latvian Television last night.

When asked the timeline airBaltic has to attract new funding in order for the company to continue operating, the finance minister said that "it seems that this is a matter for the first half of the year, and we must hope that it will happen."

He noted that the new head of airBaltic, Erno Hilden, seems confident, pragmatic, and realistic, and that the company has now been given a mandate to seek investors and is working on it.

As reported, airBaltic Group made a profit of EUR 4.249 million in the first nine months of this year compared to a loss of EUR 48.503 million in the first nine months of 2024.

At the end of August 2025, German national airline Lufthansa became a shareholder in airBaltic. Currently, the Latvian state owns 88.37 percent of airBaltic shares, Lufthansa - 10 percent, Aircraft Leasing 1, owned by Danish businessman Lars Thuesen, owns 1.62 percent, and 0.01 percent of airBaltic shares belong to other shareholders. The company's share capital is EUR 41.819 million.

After the IPO, the size of Lufthansa Group's holding will be determined by the potential IPO market price. The transaction also provides that Lufthansa Group will own at least 5 percent of the capital of airBaltic after the potential IPO.

The Latvian government also agreed in August 2024 that the state must retain at least 25 percent plus one share in the capital of airBaltic after the IPO. On August 19, 2025, the government decided that Latvia, like Germany's Lufthansa, would make a co-investment of EUR 14 million in airBaltic ahead of a potential IPO.