Is Lufthansa getting involved?
Airbaltic seeks investor before IPO
16.09.2024, 17:56
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Airbaltic plans to go public in the next few months. Before that, however, the airline plans to bring a strategic investor on board. In the industry, the name Lufthansa is often mentioned in this context. The MDAX-listed group recently booked almost half of the Latvian fleet for itself.
The Latvian airline Airbaltic is exploring the possibility of a strategic investor joining ahead of its planned IPO. However, CEO Martin Gauss did not comment on reports as to whether this would be Lufthansa. The airline could also talk to other anchor investors in the preparation phase of the IPO, explained Gauss. In the past, he had said that he could imagine that Airbaltic would one day be part of a larger airline group such as Lufthansa. But now he reiterated that he does not see this happening in the next five years.
Last week, Reuters reported, citing an insider, that Lufthansa was looking at Airbaltic with a view to investing in it. The possibility of a capital investment is being explored before the airline’s planned IPO. However, this is still very uncertain.
The Lufthansa Group already works with Airbaltic, for example as a “wet lease” airline for the Swiss subsidiary Swiss, in order to take over flights for Lufthansa during peak times. The airline recently intensified its cooperation with the Latvians. In the summer flight schedule, up to 21 AirBaltic Airbus A220 jets are to be used at various hubs, including Frankfurt and Munich. In the winter, the rental fleet is planned to be reduced to five aircraft. The contract is valid for three years.
The Lufthansa Group justifies the additional use of aircraft and crews from outside the group with the ever-increasing peaks in demand, particularly in the summer flight schedule. The additional capacity would enable destinations in high demand to be served more flexibly in the route network.
Airbaltic announced in the spring that it wanted to go public at the end of this year or in early 2025. Gauss did not give an exact date now either. The Latvian company AirBaltic is managed by the German manager Gauss and has a modern, uniform fleet of 48 Airbus A220 aircraft. The company is majority-owned by the Latvian state.