airBaltic: More Destinations in Winter

The Latvian national airline airBaltic plans to serve more destinations in the next winter season and offer additional flights, to improve connections for travellers flying via North Hub Riga to and from over 70 destinations in Europe, CIS and the Middle East.

Tero Taskila, Chief Commercial Officer of airBaltic: "In 2009, airBaltic made record profit, because we focused on attractive prices and good connections via Riga. For the coming winter, we will make it even better. Compared to last winter, fourteen new destinations are added to our route network. Flight frequencies are increased on more than twenty routes, greatly improving connections via Riga to and from Europe, CIS and the Middle East."

Comparing to the schedule of the previous winter season, airBaltic plans to offer new flights this year from North Hub Riga to Kittila, Vaasa, Rovaniemi, Kuusamo in Finland, Amman (Jordan), Beirut (Lebanon), Arkhangelsk (Russia), Athens (Greece), Belgrade (Serbia), Lulea and Umea (Sweden), Madrid (Spain). The airline also will operate two new direct flights – one from the Estonian capital of Tallinn to Stockholm, and the other one from the Finnish city of Oulu to Stockholm (Sweden).

In addition, airBaltic plans to increase flight frequency on several compared to the previous winter season. More flights will be operated to Bergen (daily), Stavanger (daily), Billund (4 times weekly), Aalesund (3 times weekly), Brussels (18 times weekly), Dublin (4 times weekly), Dushanbe (3 times weekly), Gothenburg (5 times weekly), Geneva (daily), Hamburg (daily), Kaliningrad (13 times weekly), Chisinau (5 times weekly), London (9 times weekly), Tashkent (3 times weekly), Tbilisi (5 times weekly), Oulu (daily), Tel Aviv (5 times weekly), Tromso (3 times weekly), Vaasa (daily), Umea (daily), Venice (5 times weekly), Vienna (6 times weekly), Zurich (6 times weekly).

airBaltic was acknowledged by anna.aero for the ANNIES award as the Europe's largest flag carrier by new routes, operating this summer 27 routes more than in 2009. airBaltic serves more than 70 destinations from its home base at Riga, Latvia. From each of these, airBaltic offers convenient connections via North Hub Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, CIS and the Middle East.

source: airBaltic.com

Number of airBaltic passengers grows by 29% in May 2010

airBaltic - Latvian airline carried overall 295,809 passengers in May 2010 (from Riga, Vilnius and Tallinn), representing 29% increase comparing with the May in 2009, when airBaltic transported total of 229,475 passengers. This year, the number of passengers at the base of airBaltic in Riga has increased by 25% compared to the same period last year.

During the first five months of 2010, airBaltic transported a total of 1,131,503 passengers, or 19% more than during the same period in 2009, when the total number of passengers was 947,180.

In May, airBaltic operated 5,381 flights, or 41% more than in May 2009 when airBaltic operated 3,825 flights. Between January and the end of May, the airline provided 21,156 flights in all.

The airline’s load factor, which represents the number of passengers as a proportion of the number of available seats, in May 2010 was at a level of 69%, or 3% points more than in May 2009. During the first five months of 2010 airline’s load factor was at a level of 64%, or 1% point more than in the same period in 2009.

The 15-minute flight punctuality indicator for airBaltic was at a level of 88.6% in May 2010. This means that more than 88 of every 100 airBaltic flights in May departed at the planned time or with a delay of no more than 15 minutes.

source: airBaltic.com