airBaltic passenger traffic up 1.6% in 11 months
Latvia’s national carrier airBaltic carried 4.784 million passengers in the first 11 months of 2025, a 1.6% year-on-year increase, while the number of flights rose 2.5% to 43,683, according to company data. Over the same period, the average seat load factor declined to 80.5%, down 0.8 percentage points from last year.
In November, airBaltic carried 402,400 passengers (+0.5% y/y), the highest November passenger volume in the company’s history. At the same time, flights increased 4.9% to 3,766, while the load factor fell to 78.3%, indicating that capacity expansion outpaced demand during the low-season month.
For the first nine months of 2025, the airBaltic Group reported €594.3m in revenue and €4.25m profit, following €118.2m in audited losses in 2024, despite higher turnover (€747.6m). Alongside passenger operations, the airline continues to expand aircraft leasing, with five aircraft deployed at Swiss International Air Lines (part of the Lufthansa Group), two at Air Serbia, and one aircraft operating with an Israeli carrier. Leasing activities account for roughly one-fifth of group revenues and support fleet utilisation outside the core passenger network.
Context:
The combination of modest passenger growth with declining load factors suggests that recent traffic gains have been driven primarily by capacity and fleet deployment, rather than higher aircraft utilisation within the passenger network alone. Part of the additional passenger flow may reflect stimulated demand through pricing and marketing, particularly outside the peak season. At the same time, leasing aircraft within and alongside the Lufthansa ecosystem has become a structurally embedded element of airBaltic’s business model as the company moves toward a potential IPO, with Lufthansa already a shareholder.
Source: LSM, airBaltic
BSM © 2025 | balticfocus.org/
Image: photos/photo_117@15-12-2025_18-11-45.jpg