Outgoing AirBaltic CEO hits out at nasty handling of his ouster

Martin Gauss says he lost trust of Latvian government

Operations chief Pauls Calitis to take over as interim CEO

Airline says objectives unchanged, still eyes potential IPO

(Updates with quotes from outgoing airBaltic CEO)

By Tim Hepher and Joanna Plucinska

LONDON, April 7 (Reuters) – The outgoing boss of airBaltic said he had been caught by surprise by his sudden ouster on Monday and hit out at the Latvian government’s “nasty” handling of his departure, but hoped it would clear the air for the airline to pursue its growth strategy.

Martin Gauss, who is German, has held the position of CEO since 2011. He was charged with helping the airline launch an initial public offering, which has been repeatedly pushed back.

“I lost the trust of the government. They were not happy with last year’s result,” Gauss told Reuters over the telephone hours after the airline abruptly announced his resignation.

He said the board read a statement saying they’d lost confidence in him at a shareholders’ meeting.

The airline recently sold a 10% stake to German airline group Lufthansa, as it said it struggled with engine delivery delays and sought to push back its planned IPO to 2026.

“Our core objectives remain unchanged, and airBaltic continues to implement its strategy and move forward toward a potential IPO,” said Andrejs Martinovs, the chairman of the primarily state-owned airline’s supervisory board.

Gauss told Reuters that this was the sixth Latvian government that he had dealt with and that he struggled with the most recent one.

Pauls Calitis, the current chief operations officer, will take over as interim CEO, the company said in a statement.

“I really hope that it’s politics and that this now helps the company…(so) that they can get into that future I had envisioned for it,” Gauss said. (Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Mark Potter )