A board spokesman told Õhtuleht on September 14 that it had so far received no formal complaints about the cancellations, which occurred over on the two previous days, but that several consumers had phoned to ask whether it was still possible to buy tickets on the airline.

"Purchasing tickets on AirBaltic is very risky right now because the problems with the company are very acute and widespread. The Consumer Protection Board cannot prohibit the purchase of AirBaltic tickets, but we recommend against doing so given the recent flight cancellations," a board representative said.

Erik Sakkov, a member of the board of Tallinn Airport, said that as of September 14 he had still received no explanation for the cancellations, which affected 14 flights connecting Riga to Tallinn, Vilnius, Stockholm, Brussels and Berlin. He said, however, that all scheduled flights were once again operating.

President, CEO and co-owner of the troubled airline, Bertolt Flick, declined to comment on rumors that the cancellations were the result of low passengers numbers or financial difficulty, Latvian media reports.

According to Delfi.lv, the company sent a letter to its majority owner, the Latvian Ministry of Transport, giving "improving the efficiency of flights" as the official reason for the cancellations, an explanation that the ministry found unsatisfactory.

AirBaltic is currently embroiled in a row with the Latvian government and has threatened to pull out of Riga Airport, where it accounts for 3 million of the 5 million flights that fly through the airport each year.

Flick himself has refused to return to Latvia from his native Germany for more than three months citing fears he will be arrested in connection with a corruption investigation, AFP reported.

The company, whose unaudited losses last year totaled roughly 48 million euros, is seeking a 100 million euro capital increase from the government. Flick has threatened to cancel more than 700 flights this month and next if the funds don't come through.

Steve Roman