AirBaltic Just Filed for Bankruptcy and Passengers Won't Even Notice

0:10Tasmin Lockwood: Today, a major Baltic airline files bankruptcy, why Starlink is turning into a must-have that somebody needs to pay for, and why Etihad's biggest problem right now is actually a good one. Welcome back to Skift's Daily Briefing. It's Tuesday, September 15th. I'm Tasmin Lockwood, skipped climate and experiences reporter. Let's get into it. First, Latvia's Air Baltic has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US. The airline filed on Monday in New York, seeking court protection to restructure its debt. Flights and tickets continue as normal, and the process is expected to run until around June 2027.

0:51Tasmin Lockwood: Air Baltic also secured 350 million euros so that's about 404 million dollars in new financing to get through it. The trigger? Weakening liquidity, rising fuel costs tied to the Middle East crisis and a 70 million euro net loss in the first quarter of 2026. An IPO that was supposed to shore up new financing kept slipping. Now chapter 11 is the fallback. The Latvian government owns about 89 % of the airline. Lufthansa holds a 10 % stake. The bottom line? Passengers won't notice. Creditors, lenders, and shareholders will. And this becomes the first test case as to whether a mid-sized European flag carrier can restructure its way back, the way that SAS Scandinavian Airlines did after a similar move in 2022.

1:39Tasmin Lockwood: Next, in-flight Wi-Fi used to be hit or miss. Now, Starlink has become a must-have. Travellers are even checking flight tracking sites for it. And some say they won't fly an airline that doesn't have it. Most US carriers have signed on, but it's not cheap. Jeffries estimates roughly$500 ,000 to equip a single Boeing 737-800 plus about$180 ,000 a year in fees per plane. Scale that across a fleet and you're talking tens of millions of dollars a year just for one aircraft type. Jeffrey says airlines would need to raise fares about 5 % on average just to break even on the investment. Not everyone is convinced it's worth it.

2:24Tasmin Lockwood: Ryanair's CEO passed, citing a$250 million annual bill for his fleet, and Delta's betting on a cheaper rival network that's run by Amazon. The question is, who settles the bill? Travellers are demanding better Wi-Fi, and they're about to get it. They just might not realise that they could be paying for it through high affairs. Finally, Etihad's CEO says that the airline could be growing even faster, if just it had more planes. Antonio Aldo Neves told Skiff the carrier could have had 15 more widebodies in service today. Etihad doubled its seats in three years, and next year's big push is Africa and China, and bookings are already strong.

3:05Tasmin Lockwood: An IPO still isn't on the table, though. The bottom line? Etihad's turnaround flipped its biggest problem from demand to supply, and having more customers than seats is a good problem to have. That's the Skiff Daily Briefing. For more, head to skiff.com and sign up at skiff.com forward slash daily.