Can airBaltic Survive Its Own Lenders?
On September 14, 2026, airBaltic, Latvia's national airline, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York, in a year it was carrying a record number of passengers. Founded in 1995 as a joint venture with SAS, it bet everything on one aircraft and one engine, then took a pandemic, the loss of its eastern routes, grounded jets, a 14.5% bond and a fuel shock with no hedges left, one after another. This is how a Baltic airline ended up asking an American court for protection from its own lenders, and what that means for Riga, Latvia and the planes that never stopped flying.Our companion book, Why…
The skinny
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