Latvia, Legislation, Lithuania, Transport

Vanags pointed out for LETA that initially the Lithuanian court was scheduled to announce its decision on Christmas Eve, December 24, but then it was postponed until December 31 afternoon.

"It is a very strange practice, which shows the entire Lithuanian judicial system in a bad light," Vanags said.

At the moment, the court's ruling is only available in Lithuanian, therefore airBaltic cannot yet comment it, Vanags added.

On December 31, the Lithuanian Court of Appeals decided that airBaltic assets worth about LTL 200 million or LVL 40.6 million would remain arrested. The court, however, overturned a first instance court decision to arrest airBaltic and Riga Airport liquid assets, as well as the decision demanding the Riga Airport stop offering tax breaks for airBaltic.

The Lithuanian Court of Appeal said that the latter decision was made because the Latvian Competition Council had already ruled that the Riga Airport's tax breaks system is damaging to competition. However, the Competition Council's decision has not yet come into force because it has been contested; the review of the case will continue in the fall this year.

As reported, flyLAL turned to Vilnius Court with a lawsuit against airBaltic and the Riga International Airport, accusing them of violating laws of fair competition, which allegedly caused the Lithuanian airline a loss of LVL 40 million. The court ordered arrest of the properties of airBaltic and Riga Airport, except for the bank accounts as it would impede the companies' business activity.

Shortly after that, Latvian Transport Minister Ainars Slesers (Latvia's First Party/Latvia's Way) announced that airBaltic would quit the Lithuanian market.

However, later airBaltic President and CEO Bertolt Flick said that airBaltic would continue operations in Lithuania, but it would review its development plans for the neighbor country.