tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9034006406987868261.post338621950936650296..comments2024-03-10T03:36:25.355-07:00Comments on BALTIC: From Riga to the moon?Veiko Spolitishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136925332059803186noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9034006406987868261.post-84115522933756721412008-11-07T11:57:00.000-08:002008-11-07T11:57:00.000-08:00Thank you for the links and details!Yes, news abou...Thank you for the links and details!<BR/><BR/>Yes, news about SAS lossmaking have been around for months now in EST and LAT media. Months ago, when first news came about the SAS plan to sell its stake in airbaltic, I thought that Slesers simply did not agree to sell the rest of the state ownership to SAS, thus SAS simply gave up.<BR/>Later serious rumours were spreading in Riga about Aeroflot being the new suitor - and even joke was spreading: "hej Latvian - Eurobonus is over and be ready for the Russian bonus!ยดยด<BR/><BR/>Did not have time to meddle into the official financial data - also in transport supremo &Co realm there is very little transparency... .<BR/><BR/>as soon there will be more time will keep an eye on the developments in RIX, cause according to official Slesers announcement after Vilnius fallout it should be flyLAL who should bancrupt first...<BR/><BR/>After November 11-18 celebrations in Latvia there could be many nasty news popping up. Lets wait:)Veiko Spolitishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07136925332059803186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9034006406987868261.post-64020435103645604352008-11-06T14:10:00.000-08:002008-11-06T14:10:00.000-08:00Even if this is an answer to an earlier issue, I w...Even if this is an answer to an earlier issue, I will post it here under your new entry.<BR/><BR/>SAS, the owner of 47,8% of airBaltic, are themselves very close to bankrupcy these days - and most investors believe that Lufthansa will buy that company just as they have done with Austrian, Swiss and Brussels air.<BR/><BR/>SAS on their side are intending to sell their shares in airBaltic since Latvian government didn't want to sell them their part. The question is if Latvia has the money needed for this purchase (and the desire, since they anyways are the major shareholders), and if not, who would like to buy these shares.<BR/><BR/>I have not been able to find airBaltic finance information for <BR/>Q3. Since SAS wants to sell them, airBaltic are not included in their recent report, and airBaltic themselves are not giving any new information on their web-site (which is kind of worrying). <BR/><BR/>However, SAS reported that airBaltic was creating a net loss in Q2 (http://www.sasgroup.net/SASGROUP_IR/CMSForeignContent/2q08eng.pdf page7) and recent statistics shows that their cabin factor in September this year was just 68 %, down 2 % from the same month last year. I am therefore strongly doubting that this company currently is making a profit. <BR/><BR/>In these rough times for aviation it is important to have sound financial support and liquidity to suffer short-term losses, which surely will be the case over the winter. If the possibillity of using the SAS-groups money to cover losses disappear, it will be very interesting to see if Slesers will be able to gather enough support in the government for spending money on a loss-making aircompany rather than on other, more vote-winning issues. <BR/>And of course, there is, as you say, always Brussels...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com