America’s Oldest Startup Airline Is Rebranding

America’s Oldest Startup Airline Is Rebranding

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In 2014 I first wrote about Baltia Air Lines, which is America’s oldest startup airline. They’ve been in “business” for over 25 years, except they’ve never actually flown a commercial flight, despite having owned a 747-200 for over 20 years (which they finally dumped last year, after hiring a consultant who told them it might not be the ideal plane with which to launch an airline — who would’ve thought?!).

Baltic-Air-Lines

Their business plan was initially to fly between New York and St. Petersburg, Russia, with plans to later expand to other European capitals. For years Baltia has been pretending that they’re actually going to start flying some day soon. Bizarrely enough, some people actually believed it, as the airline had a market cap of $70 million in 2014.

Finally early last year the SEC filed charges against one of Baltia’s executives, who was accused of misleading investors.

After this shakeup, the airline came up with a new business plan. Rather than flying a 747 between New York and Eastern Europe, they’d instead become a regional airline within the United States, and fly between BALtimore, Trenton, Islip, and Albany.

But then they changed their mind again, and Baltia has now signed a letter of intent with Kalitta to lease a 767-300.

Well, this week Baltia Air Lines has put out yet another press release, stating that they’re once again working on getting their FAA air carrier certification:

Baltia’s executive management team is soaring back into the exciting world of air carrier certification. After lengthy negotiations, Baltia and the Federal Aviation Administration (the “FAA”) have entered into a Settlement Agreement which authorizes Baltia to re-engage in the air carrier certification process. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, the FAA has agreed to withdraw its proposed denial of Baltia’s certification and Baltia has agreed to withdraw its appeal and request for a hearing.

A thorough review of Baltia’s organizational structure was completed, which included utilization of risk assessment and mitigation processes. Baltia’s Chief of Operations, Ms. Sheryle Milligan, stated, “This internal review gave us the opportunity to begin the transition to a new organizational structure that brings us more in line with industry standards. Despite challenges, our executive management team remained focused on the task at hand and worked to restructure the Company and realign various departments to meet the necessary desired goal of having an efficient and successful organization.”

Perhaps more significantly, Baltia plans to change their name, execute a reverse stock split, and trade under a new ticker symbol. I wonder why they’d want to make these changes?! 😉

Baltia

This will be discussed in greater detail at their annual shareholder meeting, which will take place around April 19, 2017.

Given that Baltia stock is presently trading for $0.0013 per share, I’m tempted to buy some stock and have my voice heard at the next meeting. Come to think of it, I don’t need to say anything — I just want to be a fly on the wall at that meeting. 😉

(Tip of the hat to @AirlineFlyer)

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  1. Jon Guest

    Having just spent an inexcusable amount of time on the Baltia website....this is everything that's awful and great about America

  2. Drew Guest

    Goddammit Bob! Wine burns when it comes out through your nose.

  3. Bob Member

    What's their marketing slogan? Fly the Golden Cock?

  4. Steve Member

    If you want to join their frequent flyer program the number listed on the website is 718-917-8052.

    http://www.baltia.com/frequentflyer.html

  5. Steve Member

    I doubt there will be a shareholders meeting so don't get your hopes up.

  6. Luke Vader Guest

    @Lucky,
    You really need to get yourself a 10-year consulting gig with Baltia to, well, help them segment the passenger market and develop their all-important loyalty/rewards program to ensure their aircraft flies with no empty seats. :-)

  7. Doug Guest

    I just bought 10,000 shares. If all the OMAT readers did the same, we could rename it Lucky Air (which I know is a Chinese Airline, but we could have one in the USA!)

  8. Alan Guest

    Fun fact? With $10500 you can buy all the shares... of such a ridiculous company!

  9. FairAndBalancedKindaGuy Guest

    supreme leader trump's new free market rules will renewed their hopes of being successful, without those pesky SEC regulations.

  10. J Guest

    Please don't actually buy shares. While its last trade was for about a tenth of cent, if someone here put in a market order to buy 100,000 shares (expecting that would cost about $130), it would not be surprising to see the price quickly jump by an order of magnitude or two and suddenly be on the hook for thousands of dollars.

  11. kevin Guest

    This is not a good thing, if everyone is jumping ship according to the recent 8Ks

    Effective January 31, 2017, Conrad Kalitta resigned as a Director of Baltia Air Lines, Inc. (the "Company"). Effective February 1, 2017, Barry B. Clare resigned as Vice President and Director of the Company. To the knowledge of the Company's executive officers, the resignations of Mr. Kalitta and Mr. Clare were not the result of any disagreement by either of...

    This is not a good thing, if everyone is jumping ship according to the recent 8Ks

    Effective January 31, 2017, Conrad Kalitta resigned as a Director of Baltia Air Lines, Inc. (the "Company"). Effective February 1, 2017, Barry B. Clare resigned as Vice President and Director of the Company. To the knowledge of the Company's executive officers, the resignations of Mr. Kalitta and Mr. Clare were not the result of any disagreement by either of them with the Company on any matter related to the Company's operations, policies or practices that led to their decision to resign.

    They also had to get rid of their independent auditor as the auditor's registration had been revoked
    Scrudato & Co., PA
    The decision to change Independent Accountants followed from the deregistration of John Scrudato dba Scrudato & Co., PA, by the Public Accounting Company Oversight Board ("PCAOB").

    These seems like a really good company with strong financials and good financial controls....

  12. Brad B Guest

    Why don't we all buy 10,000 shares and show up and start proposing these change, remember changes are made by those who show up.

    I like the slogan: Balta Airlines: Your safety is our priority, and because of that we remain safely on the ground.

    We could also approve a shareholder initiative stating the new goal of the company is nonstop flights to the moon. They have the same likelihood of that happening as flight to LED.

  13. stvr Guest

    It's funny but it's sad. Clueless people lost a lot of money

  14. snic Diamond

    Baltia Airlines: For 25 years, something special on the ground.

  15. kevin Guest

    Lucky: Have you joined the Golden Rooster club yet, they are going to be offering lounge access....

    Do they have lounges for Federal Prison flights?

  16. Dave Member

    Or maybe...

    Baltia Air Lines: We love to pretend to fly, and it shows

  17. Dave Member

    I'd buy 10,000 shares for $13. If we can't rename the airline, maybe we can propose a new slogan?

    Baltia Air Lines: From Baltimore to Albany faster than you can say "securities violation"

  18. Ben Guest

    You should totally buy shares and go. That would be hilarious.

  19. Walter Guest

    Someone is actively trading this stock as 8 million shares have traded today.

  20. Brad B Guest

    I think we should all buy some stock, you can buy 10,000 shares for $13 and honestly the only place this stock can go is up (well it can also drop 1/10th of a penny but can't go below $0) think of the potential of it hitting $1 per share!!!!

    Lucky, if you wanted to have fun you could buy $1.3M of stock and having a controlling interest in the company (1B shares).

    But...

    I think we should all buy some stock, you can buy 10,000 shares for $13 and honestly the only place this stock can go is up (well it can also drop 1/10th of a penny but can't go below $0) think of the potential of it hitting $1 per share!!!!

    Lucky, if you wanted to have fun you could buy $1.3M of stock and having a controlling interest in the company (1B shares).

    But in all honestly please buy just 10 shares for $0.01 and then go to the meeting, as I doubt they are expecting anyone to show up besides the president who owns most of the company and just read your blog.

  21. Endre Diamond

    Please do and report back.

Featured Comments Most helpful comments ( as chosen by the OMAAT community ).

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Jon Guest

Having just spent an inexcusable amount of time on the Baltia website....this is everything that's awful and great about America

0
Drew Guest

Goddammit Bob! Wine burns when it comes out through your nose.

0
Bob Member

What's their marketing slogan? Fly the Golden Cock?

0
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