Day No. 71 (Friday) in the prime minister’s seat ✈️—airBaltic: the new, expensive short-term private loan
Let everyone be clear. The choice is between saving airBaltic or continuing to be a bad owner without money.
As prime minister, I do not want the state to continue being a bad owner. We trust the professionals, the management board, the supervisory board and Kozlovskis. The plan was brought to the government, we approved it, anchored it in law, which provides for it. I have been saying for a month that decisions are in the hands of bondholders.
In this loan, the state does not invest money in @airBaltic.
The loan is private short-term financing (secured bondholders and a private fund without collateral cover) that gives Transport Minister Kozlovskis (JV), airBaltic management and the supervisory board 180 days to finally put the company in order and attract a strategic investor.
💶 The new loan is expensive because it reflects airBaltic’s real financial situation. It is in fact the last chance to save the company.
In 2024, during Siliņa's government, airBaltic borrowed 380 million euros in very expensive bonds. Even then, this money was supposed to serve to put the company in order. But over two years the money was burned—costs were not cut, the number of aircraft/routes was not reviewed, and finances and debts were not put in order.
The result is logical: the next money is even more expensive because lenders see the company’s current risk.
📌 Note — the new private loan’s interest rate is lower than the 30 million euro state loan supported by Siliņa's government and PRO in APRIL (without a plan, without a rescue strategy). Why lower? Because this government reduces the government’s role. It effectively removes the risk that the state as owner could behave inadequately. Immediately the market is ready to provide funds for restructuring.
My position on airBaltic has been clear for a long time:
1️⃣ airBaltic’s future is now largely in the hands of bondholders, not shareholders.
2️⃣ The state as owner and airBaltic management could have put the company in order while it still had money. Weak cooperation between company management and political leadership also led to the fact that the then IPO plan was not realized.
3️⃣ This created a situation where the company has a weak financial position, but the owner—the state—has no free money with which to save the company.
4️⃣ If the state as owner has neither the resources nor sufficient experience and knowledge to pull the company out of a severe financial situation, then the state alone cannot save the company. (ZZS @ViktorsValainis understands very well and knows that Lufthansa refused and does not want to finance AB)
5️⃣ That is why the airBaltic management board and supervisory board, together with Seabury, have developed a plan to stabilize the company’s financial situation with the help of private financial investors—in principle without state money.
6️⃣ For this plan to be implemented, the state must let professionals work and must not create additional obstacles. This is the plan submitted to the government by Transport Minister Kozlovskis, which the government has accepted and for whose implementation the necessary legal framework has also been adopted.
7️⃣ 💼 Financial investors evidently believe that within six months the company’s finances can be put in order sufficiently for airBaltic to continue its development and attract a strategic investor.
8️⃣ Now Transport Minister Kozlovskis and the airBaltic supervisory board, which represents state interests, must do everything possible in these 180 days to attract a strategic investor for whom Riga is important as the main base.
🇱🇻 Latvia needs an investor who sees airBaltic’s long-term development specifically in Latvia, with its main base and jobs. Ideally, it would be a partner alongside whom the Latvian state could also retain or acquire a stake in the company in the future.
9️⃣ This is now the direct responsibility of the Ministry of Transport, Minister Kozlovskis and the airBaltic supervisory board.
I will ask for regular reports on the potential investors approached and progress of negotiations.
⚠️ I am not satisfied with the current pace of approaching investors.
We must get it together. These 180 days must not be wasted.
I call on Prime Minister Kulbergs to address the Prosecutor General's Office with a request to initiate criminal proceedings against JV and Progressive politicians for squandering money on an especially large scale, in connection with Air Baltic!
@AlvisHermanis1 Your party resorted to a desperate lever - started promising 20,000 pensions for every child.. to any.. alcoholic, drug addict, prostitute, even to one whose children will emigrate.. to those who pay taxes your party guarantees nothing. You can get women's votes, unwise women's votes..
🇦🇲🇱🇻 On September 6–7, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Armenia @AraratMirzoyan is paying a working visit to Riga.
Minister Mirzoyan will have a meeting w/Minister @Braze_Baiba, followed by statements for the press. Other high-level meetings & discussions are also scheduled.
The agenda of the visit will focus on 🇦🇲–🇱🇻 bilateral ties, including trade & economic cooperation, as well as the deepening of the 🇦🇲–🇪🇺 partnership.
I call on Prime Minister Kulbergs to address the Prosecutor General's Office with a request to initiate criminal proceedings against JV and Progressive politicians for squandering money on an especially large scale, in connection with Air Baltic!
Recently the opposition was loud about trading with Murderland, but now the government is again speaking very cautiously. PVD will check transit grains. What will they study? Whether they contain the blood of Ukrainian children? Whether they are from Kuban, where Ukrainians have already been destroyed, or from Donbas, where Ukrainians are being destroyed? Will they look at Russian documents, searching for a grain of truth? In January 2024, the then still association Austošā Saule protested against trading with the aggressor state. Hello 2026! We also emphasize now - the rails must be dismantled! Justifying that neighbors trade and will launder blood money without us is morally crippling. Latvia not only can but will be rich ONLY when it breaks all ties with Murderland. Photo: Haralds Elcers
APVIENOTAIS SARAKSTS - Latvijas Zaļā partija, Latvijas Reģionu Apvienība, Liepājas partija · Ministru prezidents
Quote
Mr. Lapiņš, your party NA is a coalition partner of the current government, which has voted on all AB issues and participates in consultations, evaluations, and decision-making. Your questions should be addressed to the previous government and to the entire JV leadership, MPs, finance ministers, and the SM. Currently this government is already dealing with the consequences to save AB, giving the last chance to implement the strategic plan and attract a strategic investor. Watch the video, read the news, and ask your colleagues. Please direct the outrage about AB to Siliņa from JV and Briškens.
Day No. 71 (Friday) in the prime minister’s seat ✈️—airBaltic: the new, expensive short-term private loan
Let everyone be clear. The choice is between saving airBaltic or continuing to be a bad owner without money.
As prime minister, I do not want the state to continue being a bad owner. We trust the professionals, the management board, the supervisory board and Kozlovskis. The plan was brought to the government, we approved it, anchored it in law, which provides for it. I have been saying for a month that decisions are in the hands of bondholders.
In this loan, the state does not invest money in @airBaltic.
The loan is private short-term financing (secured bondholders and a private fund without collateral cover) that gives Transport Minister Kozlovskis (JV), airBaltic management and the supervisory board 180 days to finally put the company in order and attract a strategic investor.
💶 The new loan is expensive because it reflects airBaltic’s real financial situation. It is in fact the last chance to save the company.
In 2024, during Siliņa's government, airBaltic borrowed 380 million euros in very expensive bonds. Even then, this money was supposed to serve to put the company in order. But over two years the money was burned—costs were not cut, the number of aircraft/routes was not reviewed, and finances and debts were not put in order.
The result is logical: the next money is even more expensive because lenders see the company’s current risk.
📌 Note — the new private loan’s interest rate is lower than the 30 million euro state loan supported by Siliņa's government and PRO in APRIL (without a plan, without a rescue strategy). Why lower? Because this government reduces the government’s role. It effectively removes the risk that the state as owner could behave inadequately. Immediately the market is ready to provide funds for restructuring.
My position on airBaltic has been clear for a long time:
1️⃣ airBaltic’s future is now largely in the hands of bondholders, not shareholders.
2️⃣ The state as owner and airBaltic management could have put the company in order while it still had money. Weak cooperation between company management and political leadership also led to the fact that the then IPO plan was not realized.
3️⃣ This created a situation where the company has a weak financial position, but the owner—the state—has no free money with which to save the company.
4️⃣ If the state as owner has neither the resources nor sufficient experience and knowledge to pull the company out of a severe financial situation, then the state alone cannot save the company. (ZZS @ViktorsValainis understands very well and knows that Lufthansa refused and does not want to finance AB)
5️⃣ That is why the airBaltic management board and supervisory board, together with Seabury, have developed a plan to stabilize the company’s financial situation with the help of private financial investors—in principle without state money.
6️⃣ For this plan to be implemented, the state must let professionals work and must not create additional obstacles. This is the plan submitted to the government by Transport Minister Kozlovskis, which the government has accepted and for whose implementation the necessary legal framework has also been adopted.
7️⃣ 💼 Financial investors evidently believe that within six months the company’s finances can be put in order sufficiently for airBaltic to continue its development and attract a strategic investor.
8️⃣ Now Transport Minister Kozlovskis and the airBaltic supervisory board, which represents state interests, must do everything possible in these 180 days to attract a strategic investor for whom Riga is important as the main base.
🇱🇻 Latvia needs an investor who sees airBaltic’s long-term development specifically in Latvia, with its main base and jobs. Ideally, it would be a partner alongside whom the Latvian state could also retain or acquire a stake in the company in the future.
9️⃣ This is now the direct responsibility of the Ministry of Transport, Minister Kozlovskis and the airBaltic supervisory board.
I will ask for regular reports on the potential investors approached and progress of negotiations.
⚠️ I am not satisfied with the current pace of approaching investors.
We must get it together. These 180 days must not be wasted.
Austošā Saule Latvijai · ASL valdes priekšsēdētājs
Tweet
Recently the opposition was loud about trading with Murderland, but now the government is again speaking very cautiously. PVD will check transit grains. What will they study? Whether they contain the blood of Ukrainian children? Whether they are from Kuban, where Ukrainians have already been destroyed, or from Donbas, where Ukrainians are being destroyed? Will they look at Russian documents, searching for a grain of truth? In January 2024, the then still association Austošā Saule protested against trading with the aggressor state. Hello 2026! We also emphasize now - the rails must be dismantled! Justifying that neighbors trade and will launder blood money without us is morally crippling. Latvia not only can but will be rich ONLY when it breaks all ties with Murderland. Photo: Haralds Elcers
APVIENOTAIS SARAKSTS - Latvijas Zaļā partija, Latvijas Reģionu Apvienība, Liepājas partija · Saeimas deputāts
Tweet
Hello, thanks. Today in Rēzekne is the National Armed Forces Industry Day. Brataševičs also attended, he wanted to read something from a paper. As I understand, the organizers did not let him near the microphone. 👍
APVIENOTAIS SARAKSTS - Latvijas Zaļā partija, Latvijas Reģionu Apvienība, Liepājas partija · Ministru prezidents
Tweet
Day No. 71 (Friday) in the prime minister’s seat ✈️—airBaltic: the new, expensive short-term private loan
Let everyone be clear. The choice is between saving airBaltic or continuing to be a bad owner without money.
As prime minister, I do not want the state to continue being a bad owner. We trust the professionals, the management board, the supervisory board and Kozlovskis. The plan was brought to the government, we approved it, anchored it in law, which provides for it. I have been saying for a month that decisions are in the hands of bondholders.
In this loan, the state does not invest money in @airBaltic.
The loan is private short-term financing (secured bondholders and a private fund without collateral cover) that gives Transport Minister Kozlovskis (JV), airBaltic management and the supervisory board 180 days to finally put the company in order and attract a strategic investor.
💶 The new loan is expensive because it reflects airBaltic’s real financial situation. It is in fact the last chance to save the company.
In 2024, during Siliņa's government, airBaltic borrowed 380 million euros in very expensive bonds. Even then, this money was supposed to serve to put the company in order. But over two years the money was burned—costs were not cut, the number of aircraft/routes was not reviewed, and finances and debts were not put in order.
The result is logical: the next money is even more expensive because lenders see the company’s current risk.
📌 Note — the new private loan’s interest rate is lower than the 30 million euro state loan supported by Siliņa's government and PRO in APRIL (without a plan, without a rescue strategy). Why lower? Because this government reduces the government’s role. It effectively removes the risk that the state as owner could behave inadequately. Immediately the market is ready to provide funds for restructuring.
My position on airBaltic has been clear for a long time:
1️⃣ airBaltic’s future is now largely in the hands of bondholders, not shareholders.
2️⃣ The state as owner and airBaltic management could have put the company in order while it still had money. Weak cooperation between company management and political leadership also led to the fact that the then IPO plan was not realized.
3️⃣ This created a situation where the company has a weak financial position, but the owner—the state—has no free money with which to save the company.
4️⃣ If the state as owner has neither the resources nor sufficient experience and knowledge to pull the company out of a severe financial situation, then the state alone cannot save the company. (ZZS @ViktorsValainis understands very well and knows that Lufthansa refused and does not want to finance AB)
5️⃣ That is why the airBaltic management board and supervisory board, together with Seabury, have developed a plan to stabilize the company’s financial situation with the help of private financial investors—in principle without state money.
6️⃣ For this plan to be implemented, the state must let professionals work and must not create additional obstacles. This is the plan submitted to the government by Transport Minister Kozlovskis, which the government has accepted and for whose implementation the necessary legal framework has also been adopted.
7️⃣ 💼 Financial investors evidently believe that within six months the company’s finances can be put in order sufficiently for airBaltic to continue its development and attract a strategic investor.
8️⃣ Now Transport Minister Kozlovskis and the airBaltic supervisory board, which represents state interests, must do everything possible in these 180 days to attract a strategic investor for whom Riga is important as the main base.
🇱🇻 Latvia needs an investor who sees airBaltic’s long-term development specifically in Latvia, with its main base and jobs. Ideally, it would be a partner alongside whom the Latvian state could also retain or acquire a stake in the company in the future.
9️⃣ This is now the direct responsibility of the Ministry of Transport, Minister Kozlovskis and the airBaltic supervisory board.
I will ask for regular reports on the potential investors approached and progress of negotiations.
⚠️ I am not satisfied with the current pace of approaching investors.
We must get it together. These 180 days must not be wasted.
Sincere thanks to everyone who was with us today at the memorial event for Kārlis Ulmanis in 'Pikšas'! 🇱🇻 Thank you for being together, for respect and for preserving memory. Such days remind us how important it is to honor our history and the people who have shaped Latvia. https://t.co/ynnbqETlYT
Something strange. My first two places, i.e. the closest parties, are occupied by NA and the Progressives with the same percentage. Now I don't know what I really am. https://t.co/Zft5X05tUi