Erno Hildēns, the new executive director of the Latvian national airline “airBaltic”, received 57,211 euros as salary from the company in December last year, which is about 18% less than the average monthly salary of the former head of the airline, Martins Gauss, according to the calculations of the LETA agency, based on Hildēns’ official income declaration for 2025.
Hilden he started working at the airline on December 1 last year, and in December he received 57,211 euros as salary from the airline.
On the other hand Gauss In 2024, he received a total of 838,568 euros as a salary from the airline, thus his average monthly income amounted to approximately 69,881 euros, according to the official’s income declaration for 2024 submitted by Gaus.
It will be possible to find out the exact amount of Hilden’s salary when he submits the declaration for 2026.
airBaltic chairman of the council Andrei Martinov LETA explained that Hilden has no probationary period and has a fixed salary. He explained that certain differences between the monthly salary and the declared income are possible, because it also depends on whether compensated expenses, such as rented accommodation, are included in the income.
Martinov added that the head of “airBaltic” was selected in an international competition, where more than 40 candidates from several countries applied, and the selection was made by the nomination committee of the competition. “In the last round of the competition, the candidates announced their ambitions for a salary, so from this point of view, this salary has been determined objectively. Among other things, it corresponds to the situation of “airBaltic”, the tasks of the new manager and the level of the international environment,” said Martinov.
He added that, in principle, this remuneration corresponds to the conditions of the competition, the operation of the airline, as well as the risks that the driver must take.
The declaration also shows that Hilden accumulated a total of 393,426 euros in two banks at the end of last year. Among them, at the end of 2025, he had non-cash savings of 111,012 euros in Finland’s Bank Pirkanmaa, and 3,056,141 SEK (282,414 euros) in Sweden’s SEB Bank.
At the same time, Hilden’s debts amounted to 458,954 euros at the end of last year.
Also, he had issued two loans, the amount of which exceeds 20 minimum monthly salaries set by the Cabinet of Ministers – for 140,000 euros and 54,000 euros, respectively.
At the end of December last year, he owned financial instruments worth 365,049 euros. Hilden has shown that he has investments in both private pension funds and life insurance with the accumulation of funds.
At the end of last year, Hilden owned a building in Tampere, Finland, and co-owned two buildings in Finland – Tusula and Kangasala. He also rented an apartment in Riga.
He also owned three cars at the end of last year, including 2017 and 2024 BMWs and a 2017 Chevrolet. He also owned a 2018 Honda motorcycle and a 2022 Harley Davidson motorcycle, as well as a 2022 BRP Can-Am ATV, a 2019 Marino boat, and a 2024 Sea-Doo jet ski.
Hilden stated that he is a member of the board of two companies registered in Finland – “Hilden Invest” and “Habitus Hilden”.
LETA already announced that Hildens started working as the executive director of “airBaltic” on December 1, 2025.
It was also announced that on April 7 last year, the board of “airBaltic” decided to dismiss the chairman of the board and executive director of the airline Gaus, who had been working in this position since November 1, 2011.
