Latvia, Tourism, Transport

The airline will offer four new destinations – to Amsterdam, Hanover, Tampere and Dubai, and will increase the numbers of flights along nine routes. Thus, altogether airBaltic will offer 49 routes from Riga and 14 – from Vilnius in Lithuania, informs LETA.

The frequency of flights in the new routes will be as follows: daily to the capital of the Netherlands Amsterdam, five times per week to Hanover in Germany, twice daily to Tampere in Finland and twice per week to Dubai in the United Arab Emirats.

As usually in the winter season, airBaltic will also offer flights to two Egyptian destinations for sun lovers – Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Furthermore, the airline has increased the frequency of flights to Billund (three flights a week), Brussels (11 flights a week), Dusseldorf (six flights a week), Rome (six flights a week), Istanbul (seven flights a week), Kiev (twice daily), Kaliningrad (14 flights a week), Chisinau (seven flights a week), and Munich (eight flights a week).

“We are launching these new destinations and increasing the number of flights from Riga because of growing demand. airBaltic serves almost 50 destinations, and there are more than 60 destinations in total which are accessible from the Riga International Airport, and because of this, increasing numbers of people from Estonia and Lithuania are choosing to travel via Riga," said Bertolt Flick, president and CEO of airBaltic.

During the winter of 2008, airBaltic will serve the following 49 destinations from Riga: Aalesund, Almaty, Amsterdam, Baku, Barcelona, Bergen, Berlin, Billund, Brussels, Copenhagen, Chisinau, Dubai, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Hanover, Helsinki, Hurghada, Istanbul, Kaliningrad, Kiev, Kuopio, Liepaja, London, Milan, Minsk, Moscow, Munich, Nice, Odessa, Oslo, Paris, Rome, Simferopol, Sharm-el-sheikh, Stavanger, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Tallinn, Tashkent, Tampere, Tbilisi, Tel Aviv, Venice, Vienna, Vilnius, Zurich, and Yerevan.

From Vilnius this winter, airBaltic will offer flights to Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Helsinki, London, Milan, Munich, Oslo, Paris (from March 9), Riga, Rome (from March 10), Stockholm, and Tallinn. Since the beginning of September, airBaltic has increased the frequency of flights between Vilnius to Riga to five flights a day.

As reported, during the first eight months of 2008, airBaltic transported a total of 1,696,826 passengers, or 32% more than during the same period in 2007, when the total number of passengers was 1,287,227.

airBaltic operated with LVL 7.88 million in losses in the first six months of 2008, according to an announcement from its shareholder SAS.

LETA also reported, the turnover of airBaltic in 2007 amounted to LVL 159.43 million, which is a 38% increase, compared with the results of 2006. The passenger turnover grew by 41% and reached the total number of two million. However, the company's profit decreased threefold, dropping to LVL 1.24 million, compared to LVL 4.06 million in 2006.