SmartLynx will no longer operate charter flights from the Baltic countries from May

He explained that the airline’s long-term contract with the tour operator Novatours will soon end, so from May there will be no more active contracts for charter flights to the Baltic countries.

Demenus added that the business of tour operators is a little different, and in order for SmartLynx to continue to develop in this direction, additional investment is needed.

“There is quite a lot of competition and there are a lot of tour operators here, but we can’t get them all. If we only have some operators, then the workload is low. We sell watches that fly on an airplane. In this case, we see that using our service elsewhere in Europe or even on another continent can be twice as profitable,” said Demenus.

However, he said that the company’s goal is to try to increase not only the size of the aircraft fleet, but also the number of flight hours per aircraft per month. “For example, if we flew 350 hours per month, then the goal is to increase the number of hours to 450 or even 500 hours. In the Baltic market, given the size of the market, we cannot achieve this goal,” added Demenius.

He also said SmartLynx does not fly to the Baltics because the market and population are small and the airline’s business model is different in that it is based on full-service aircraft leasing (ACMI) services rather than selling seats.

He explained that, apart from the Latvian national airline airBaltic, there are no other local companies that could require the services of SmartLynx.

“But this does not mean that we are disappearing from the Baltics. Our main base will still be in Riga, we also have an office in Tallinn, Vilnius and Malta, and some people work remotely from countries such as India, USA, Canada, Germany,” Demenius added.

He added that SmartLynx continues to invest and develop in the Baltics, operating from its headquarters. The airline is also looking to build a new headquarters building, which will be very close to the existing building with 700 jobs.