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Jan 11, 2024 (newstodate): Visions of a "Pan-Baltic airline" have been in the air for more than two decades - and are now resurfacing in new guise.
   The plans to float airBaltic through an IPO expectedly by the end of this year have opened new opportunities for Estonia and Lithuania to gain a stake in the Latvian carrier that has successfully spread into the Baltic markets, and rendered hopes or plans for setting up new national carriers to serve Estonia and Lithuania increasingly void.  
   Now Tallinn Airport's CEO Riivo Tuvike tells media that the Estonian state should consider buying a stake in Latvian carrier airBaltic in order to tie the airline closer to that airport.
   -If the Estonian state were to acquire a stake, it would both anchor airBaltic more closely to Tallinn and likely motivate the company to expand its activities in the Estonian capital, he told  Vikerraadio.
   The same thoughts are appearing in Lithuania.
   -I have already had two conversations with the Latvian Transport Minister about the possibility of Lithuania acquiring a stake in airBaltic, Lithuania's Transport Minister Marius Skuodis told the country's media.
   airBaltic opened its base at Tallinn Airport in November 2014, and effectively squeezed out its Estonian competitor, that finally retreated from the market for scheduled services from July 2019.
   In Lithuania, airBaltic opened its base at Vilnius in November 2014, benefiting from the final collapse of Lithuania's latest attempt to establish a national carrier, Air Lituanica that finally folded its wings on May 22, 2015.  
   In the last pre-Covid year, 2019, airBaltic's share of the Latvian air transport market was 58 percent; in Estonia the market share was 21 percent, and in Lithuania airBaltic accounted for 12 percent of the air travel market.