Diego, California, in the summer of 1979 to provide scheduled passenger and cargo services. Employing a Piper PA-31-310 Navajo and Brit-ten-Norman BN-2 Islander, the commuter launches revenue flights on August 18 linking its base with Los Angeles, El Centro, and destinations in Baja California, some of which are visited as charters.
Operations continue apace until the carrier goes out of business on December 14, 1980.
AIR BALTIC CORPORATION, S. A.: Riga Airport, Kalku 15, Riga, LV-1050, Latvia; Phone 371 (7) 207 069; Fax 371 (7) 207 369; Http://www. airbaltic. lv; Code BT; Year Founded 1995. Following the failures of Baltic International Airlines and Latavio, the national government in July 1995 elects to back a new flag carrier. ABC is established at Riga on August 29, with shareholding provided by the Latvian state (51%), SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System) (29%), Swedfund (6.2%), lO: The Investment Fund for Central and Eastern Europe (6.2%), and Baltic International USA (8.02%). Initial share capital of $12 million is available from these partners, together with an additional $14 million from Latvian and Nordic investment banks.
Recently retired SAS Executive Vice President/COO Kjell Fredheim is named president/CEO and recruits a workforce of 187. SAS seconds Katalina Forsman over from Stockholm to act as the carrier’s SVP/CFO. Plans to operate either a fleet of two Boeing 727s (leased from Baltic International USA) or four former SAS Douglas DC-9-21s fall through. Instead, a dry-leased SAAB 340 is found and a British Aerospace BAe 146-200 is wet-leased from Manx Airlines, Ltd. (2) (Manx Airlines Europe, Ltd.).
Daily revenue flights (some flown dual-designator with SAS) commence on October 1 to from Riga to Copenhagen to Frankfurt to Riga to London (LHW) to Copenhagen to Riga. A number of these flights are made in cooperation with SAS.
The company’s inability to settle outstanding claims by Aeroflot Russian International Airline prevents it from gaining traffic rights to Moscow. Orders are placed for three Avro RJ70s, all of which have previously been flown by Business Express, Ltd.
Airline employment stands at 190 in 1996. The first Avro RJ70 is received in January and is christened Vidzeme. It is followed by two more during the first quarter. The three replace the BAe. Minsk, Stockholm, Tallin, Vilnius, and Warsaw join the route network, along with an SAS dual-designator service from Riga to Copenhagen and Geneva. En-planements total 104,849.
Enplanements for the first full year of service total 106,341.
The workforce is increased by 11.2% during 1997 to 208. The company now operates a SAAB 340 and three Avro RJ70s from Riga to
Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Kiev, London, Minsk, Moscow, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Vilnius, and Warsaw.
World History
