Three members of Latvia-based airBaltic’s supervisory board will step down from their positions in February 2025.
The Latvian Ministry of Transport (MoU) and the airBaltic supervisory board have decided to end the current supervisory board’s duties starting from February 11, 2025, the ministry announced in a statement seen by local media on January 21, 2025.
Local media reports indicate that Klāvs Vasks, the current Chairman of the Supervisory Board of airBaltic, will resign, along with two other members, Kaspars Ozoliņš and Andris Liepiņš.
The fourth member, Lars Thuesen, the owner of Aircraft Leasing 1, a company which holds 2.03% of airBaltic shares, will stay on the supervisory board. He has been a member since 2017.
“It’s a mutual agreement,” Kaspars Briškens, Latvian Minister for Transport, told local media outlet TV3.lv. “We came to the common conclusion in order to drive change in the company.”
Chairman Vasks said that the relationship with the government was not the easiest, especially regarding the possibility of the state investing additional funds in the airline as it prepared to go public. He added that “conversations about this section were the most painful ones.”
Briškens said he is optimistic about reaching an agreement with a strategic investor for the airline soon, with German airline Lufthansa being a potential candidate, according to the TV3.lv report.
Officials from the MoU have begun selecting candidates for the new airBaltic supervisory board, with an interim board expected to be appointed in the coming weeks.
In the beginning of January 2025, tensions arose between the Latvian government and airBaltic after it was revealed that the airline had to cancel 4,670 flights for the summer 2025 season due to maintenance issues affecting the Pratt & Whitney engines used in its A220 fleet.
