Air Baltic to cut up to 700 jobs in restructuring after Chapter 11 filing

Air Baltic is preparing to cut between 500 and 700 jobs across its bases in Riga, Vilnius and Tallinn, part of a restructuring effort that follows its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. With roughly 3,000 staff in the Baltic states, the reductions would amount to as much as 23% of the airline's workforce.

The Latvian carrier says the final number of redundancies is still subject to consultations with trade unions, including possible reduced workload arrangements for flight deck and cabin crew. New organisational structures for the remaining functions are expected to be settled by mid-October. The company has notified Latvia's State Employment Agency of the collective redundancy process.

Chief executive Erno Hilden said the airline's priority is to handle the process with transparency and respect while keeping employees informed. No individual decisions have been made, according to the carrier, and current flight schedules are unaffected, with operations continuing as normal.

The job cuts sit within a wider package of measures under a revised business strategy that puts financial stability and cost efficiency ahead of broad expansion. That strategy, announced in August, includes a fleet-reduction plan. Air Baltic flies 54 Airbus A220-300s and intends to scale back to 36 aircraft by the end of the year, before growing gradually to about 41 A220s by 2031.

The plan marks a sharp break from the airline's earlier goal of building a fleet of 100 aircraft ahead of a planned initial public offering.