It all starts with your first contact with airBaltic. Be it by visiting one of our ticket offices, calling our reservation centre, accessing our website, or meeting one of our sales executives – quality here means ease of access, clear and transparent information, and a friendly human touch. This continues when you reach the airport. Our signage shall guide you to the right check-in counter (in case you have not already used our internet check-in facility) and boarding gate. Check-in and boarding shall proceed smoothly and, again, with a smile! On board our aircraft you expect professional staff, comfortable seating, and amenities according to your class of service. Your aircraft leaves on time. Arriving at your destination, you expect to receive your checked-in baggage in time and in one piece. airBaltic has set stringent quality standards for all parts of its operations, and is continuously working to improve its performance. Punctuality is one of the most important quality criteria for most customers. But, when it comes to on-time performance of airBaltic, we cannot be satisfied with the results. Flights do not always leave on time: overcrowded air spaces in most regions in Europe, overcrowded airports and airport limitations, security procedures before boarding, weather conditions, technical malfunctions – delayed flights are most annoying to you as customers, and to us as an airline. For you it means extra waiting time, maybe even a missed flight connection at another airport. For us, delays have a negative impact on our image, and in many cases also entail extra costs. Because air traffic has increased substantially, having a 10 minute delay in Riga can sometimes mean a missed slot and, therefore, a 60 minute delay in Milan. We have problems in our base airports Riga and Vilnius because of high growth and difficulties of both airports to hire and train new staff, and to upgrade terminals and other facilities in order to cope with increased demand. airBaltic works actively in order to get its planes into the air on time. We employ special airport supervisors who shall assure that everything possible is done to avoid ground delays. They provide supervision, but also support to ground handling staff. We keep stand-by aircraft at our base stations, which can be quickly used to switch aircraft in case of expected technical or other delay etc. We have an exceptionally high regularity of flights, with 99.6% of all our flights being operated as scheduled. Our 15 minute punctuality of 83% puts us into the top group of airlines in Europe – still, in 2008 we will make major efforts to improve our punctuality, to reach a substantially higher level. Have a good flight! Bertolt Flick
President and CEO |
