DALLAS —Yesterday, news broke that Martin Gauss, CEO of airBaltic (BT), has stepped down after 14 years. Gauss is widely credited with establishing one of the youngest airlines in Europe.
Following the decision made at the regular Shareholders’ Meeting, the Supervisory Board of the Latvian national airline airBaltic announced changes to the company’s Management Board.
We sat down with Martin and collected his thoughts after yesterday’s events.
“When you have a day like yesterday, it tough for everyone. When you are a CEO, you work at a very high level, and you are expected to deal with these situations, but the practical is different sometimes. The CEO is an employee of the company, and needs to accept the shareholder decision.”
“I didn’t see it coming this way, because the government was constantly talking about it. The government wanted to change CEO, they did not like the process. Normally, you don’t do it this way. I am still proud of what we have created, a well-respected company.”
“The reason stated was the loss of confidence due to the loss of last year, which was explained in the quarterly report. It was a difficult time for us, with the IPO and more work. We have a huge potential, with 50 more aircraft in order.”
Regarding the interest from the Lufthansa Group, Gauss commented:
“Lufthansa Group was very important for us, to have a strong shareholder on our side. The IPO is missing, I could not do it, it was our big target. I will wait for the company to finally break free and privatize, so that these kinds of things will be more coordinated.”
About his future, Gauss stated:
“I definitely don’t want to retire, however for now I need to accept the decision from BT.”
“Of the 100 aircraft, airBaltic still aims to operate 65 in its fleet and lease 35. We could lease out more and it will be the new management’s decision. By mid-summer, we will have half of the fleet with Starlink.”
“We need to keep the positive name of airBaltic, I take the blame for anything I am being blamed for. Over the years, we have taken the market share from Ryanair and WIZZ air, and it is something I am proud of. We did that against all odds and built a successful connectivity model.”
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May 2025
