airBaltic CEO: Ljubljana should have its own airline
The CEO of airBaltic, Martin Gauss, is credited with restructuring the Latvian national carrier from a near-bankrupt business into one of the strongest in Eastern Europe, registering an operating profit of 32 million euros last year with four hubs and a fleet of forty aircraft. In an interview for EX-YU Aviation News, which will be published in three parts, Mr Gauss touched upon the current air connectivity issues in Ljubljana, with the Slovenian government expected to decide this summer on whether to establish a new national airline. “I am very sad that Ljubljana doesn’t have an airline anymore. Looking at Latvia with 1.8 million people, being in the northern end of Europe and having connectivity with more than 100 routes from just one airline, Ljubljana should have its own carrier and have that connectivity”, Mr Gauss said.
Elaborating further on the matter, airBaltic’s CEO noted, “Adria Airways failed and nobody else stepped in. What we have done in the Baltics is take a bankrupt company to where we are now. The same development is possible in Slovenia. Why not do what we do and start out with five planes out of Ljubljana and just establish connectivity. Don’t try to compete with Ryanair and Wizz Air and carry 200 passengers for no money from A to B. Establish connectivity, with a proper plan. Important for these kinds of models is to have the right aircraft. For example, in Tampere [Finland] we put an aircraft and established flights from an airport from which nothing was happening, and we have now built up a network. We are not connecting Tampere only to leisure destinations, which of course works as well, but we connected it to the hubs of our key codeshare partners and then you have proper connectivity with proper timing”.
Mr Gauss emphasised that connectivity is key to any European capital city airport. “Ljubljana is maybe privileged because it is closer to Central Europe, and it perhaps has better road and rail connections than Riga but, still, nothing beats a plane if we talk about something that is beyond 500 kilometres. Therefore, the airBaltic success story is building connectivity - that’s why we are still here and we will further build on this as well. There was an airline, it was providing it, it didn’t make it but that doesn’t mean you do not need connectivity. You have to try and understand why they did not make it”, Mr Gauss said. Asked whether the airline itself could establish operations between one of its hubs and Ljubljana, the CEO noted, “For us, Ljubljana is still not on the list of destinations with high enough passenger potential. However, that doesn’t mean that Ljubljana shouldn’t have its own connectivity”.
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