A/S Air Baltic Corporation, operating as AirBaltic (styled as airBaltic), is the Latvian flag carrier airline and a low-cost carrier, with its head office on the grounds of Riga International Airport in Mārupe municipality, near the capital, Riga. Its main hub is at Riga International Airport and it previously had secondary hubs at Vilnius International Airport and Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport . The majority of the routes commenced from Tallinn were cancelled shortly after opening, leading to complaints from the Estonian Consumer Protection Department . On 23 September 2010, AirBaltic made an announcement to establish a new secondary hub at Oulu Airport. It is the first national flag carrier airline marketed as a low-cost airline.
Air Baltic is heavily loss-making , and has suffered speculation about its financial position and political scandals throughout 2011 . In mid September 2011 the company announced plans to lay-off around half its employees cancel around 700 flights a month to avoid possible grounding.
On the 22nd of September 2011, AirBaltic filed for bankruptcy in Latvia to protect itself from creditors, the company is in a very bad shape and solutions are sought to avoid a total grounding of the fleet in the near future. The plans of the hub at Oulu Airport are probably cancelled said the director of Finavia in Finland.
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