On January 31, 2020, the annual Latvian Tourism Person of the Year 2019 award ceremony took place during tourism exhibition Balttour 2020. This year the Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic Martin Gauss was recognized as the Tourism Person of the Year 2019.

– Every day the team of airBaltic works hard to deliver the best service to its customers and improve the connectivity of Latvia and the Baltic states with the world by offering a growing range of destinations. I’m grateful for this appreciation from industry colleagues, but the achievements of airBaltic are the work of our team, which brings additional value to the Latvian economy by promoting travel opportunities to and from this beautiful country, says Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic.

Annually, since 2003, Latvian tourism professionals, who have contributed to the industry growth and created positive added value, have been honoured.

This year, Tourism Person of the Year award was presented in seven categories, where the winners were selected by a special jury, which consisted of tourism business experts, leaders of tourism associations, winners of previous years, representatives of national tourism and news website BalticTravelnews.com.

In 2019, Latvian airline airBaltic carried 5 049 317 passengers or 22% more than the year before to its network. It is the highest number of passengers carried in airline’s history. Last year airBaltic launched nine new routes, and, by adding more Airbus A220-300 to their fleet, increased the comfort and reliability of their flights.

In 2020, airBaltic continues its expansion in the Baltics and will launch 14 new routes, including four new direct destinations from Tallinn, Estonia, and five new destinations from Vilnius, Lithuania. A complete schedule of airBaltic flights and tickets for the new destinations are already available on the company’s website.