Uhh what are the main ones besides Karums?

Are you serious?! So, an Estonian also wants to boycott Latvian product just to show his disrespect to AB? Why's that, how can Estonian business suffer from that? :nuts:
Strange as it may seem, but Maximas are samely unclean in LV as in LT and they just sell products of the very low level, mostly those of each day consuming. How can just the origin of a company be so noticeable anywhere!

^ Well,obviously,I'm sure he meant it as a joke ;)

Are you serious?! So, an Estonian also wants to boycott Latvian product just to show his disrespect to AB? Why's that, how can Estonian business suffer from that? :nuts:
Strange as it may seem, but Maximas are samely unclean in LV as in LT and they just sell products of the very low level, mostly those of each day consuming. How can just the origin of a company be so noticeable anywhere!

No, I'm honestly asking which are the other main products? Don't get me wrong - Karums is great!

(I'm not flying with AB, but that's another thing.)

I propose to boycott all Latvian products including the Kārums sweet curd snacks. :bash:
I hope you guys won't be mad at me, but I'm eating some sort of sweet sticks which were made in Latvia. :runaway:

^^ :hahano:
Let's maybe stick more to topic, shall we?

P.S. I am buying latvian milk :)

Can agree to much what's been said from Lithuanians.
It's very reasonable not to fly with a carrier which can change your already bought tickets from direct to non-direct ones. I would even say, you should go and sue AB in court in such cases.
Also, I can agree, that AB is not a cheap company in terms of prices. Many times they have advertised their cheap tickets, but when I try to find them in their web-page, somehow it's almost always impossible. Ryanair really offer those cheap tickets which they advertise.
On the other hand, FlyLAL were even more crooked company, you have told yourselves here about the dirty things behind them. So, AB Vs FlyLAL was just the fight between 2 wannabee "business sharks", in which AB turned out stronger and killed the other fish :) Most probably they try to do the same with Estonian Air now, just because these waters are not that large for so many fishes there :) But... Since the really big shark (Ryanair) have announced about their base in Kaunas, it will be interesting now. AirBaltic can have problems in the future. Their reputation can play ot against them in the competition with Ryanair.

Out of 20 biggest Baltic companies 11 are Lithuanian.

Where is such a list? Give the link - should be interesting to explore. VP Market and Mažeiķu Nafta are the only one Lithuanian companies I know. Probably more, just don't remember them.

Where is such a list? Give the link - should be interesting to explore. VP Market and Mažeiķu Nafta are the only one Lithuanian companies I know. Probably more, just don't remember them.


http://vz.lt/images/article/2010/02/03/a6a89ab1-7e1c-4cf6-a764-ce324a7c496c.jpg

The first three were colossal compared to the rest, with a combined turnover reaching approximately 33 bln. Litas (~9 bln. euros.) in 2008.

http://vz.lt/images/article/2010/02/03/a6a89ab1-7e1c-4cf6-a764-ce324a7c496c.jpg

The first three were colossal compared to the rest, with a combined turnover reaching approximately 33 bln. Litas (~9 bln. euros.) in 2008.

This list can be quite outdated. For example, LEO lt doesn't exist anymore. Also, I was thinking it's about really Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian companies not foreign company subsidiaries like, f.e.. Polish company Orlen (although they bought previously Lithuanian Mažeiķu Nafta), Russian company Lukoil or Norwegian company Rimi.
I found info about this 2008 list also in Latvian, and it's interesting, that in top300 the share of companies by countries is almost identical: 104 companies from Lithuania, 99 from Estonia and 97 - from Latvia.

One thing which suprises me, is that Lithuanian railway company Lietuvos Geležinkeliai is higher than Latvian railway company Latvijas Dzelzceļs. In terms of cargo, you have only Klaipeda port, which is about the same size as Riga, while we have also similarly sized Ventspils (also a few small ones). And in terms of railway passenger traffic (which should be rather unimportant factor anyway), I have red some statistics few years ago about it's much more "alive" in Latvia than in Lithuania. So, where the Lietuvos Geležinkelai power comes from? Any versions?

OK, back to topic, and speaking about AirBaltic's strategy in Tallinn, here is very fresh news from bbn.com:

Statistics: airBaltic strategy in Tallinn is working

New statistics of airline passengers served by Tallinn Airport shows that the strategy of Latvian carrier airBaltic is working: more people have been flying with airBaltic to Riga to get a connecting flight while less people are taking an Estonian Air flight to Europe.

However, Estonian Air is still a dominant carrier in Tallinn with a market share of 41.4% although it was as high as 45.8% in 2005. In the meantime, the market share of airBaltic in Tallinn has increased from 3.5% in 2005 to 13.1% in 2009. By the way, in 2008 airBaltic handled 6.6% of passengers in Tallinn.

According to Erik Sakkov, sales manager of Tallinn Airport, airBaltic's strategy is to shuttle more Estonian travellers to and from Riga for connecting flights. "This is why airBaltic has rapidly increased the number of flights between Tallinn and Riga," he said, adding that 13.8% of flights departing from Tallinn last year headed for Riga. The figure for Helsinki was 13.5%, followed by Copenhagen with 12.8% and Frankfurt with 6.1%.

Sakkov said that thanks to airBaltic, Riga has already become an important hub for Estonian travellers and competes for them with Helsinki, Copenhagen and Frankfurt. He refused to speculate whether airBaltic could eventually become the largest player in Tallinn Airport. "It depends on the airlines' future strategy and the overall development of the aviation market," he said.

^^ :hahano:
Let's maybe stick more to topic, shall we?

Some of use here lack the sense of humor. ;)
Of course I'm not going to boycott Latvian products... even AB if it can offer more competitive prices than others.

So, where the Lietuvos Geležinkelai power comes from? Any versions?
Transit to Kaliningrad?

LDZ Cargo alone controls around 40% of Baltic rail cargo transport.

LDZ Cargo alone controls more than 45% of Baltic rail cargo transport.

Then it's doesn't make sense at all. If LG has larger share, then it means Estonian railway companies doesn't exist at all! :) Probably in 2008 the numbers were different, probably...

No they were never different. What makes you think that Lietuvas railways carry more goods than LDZ? They don't.
Speaking about passenger traffic, due to much more developed suburban rail in LDZ is well ahead of Lietuvas railways also there. 23 million vs 7,2 in in 2003. That might be the reason of overall-financially worse situation in 2008 as passenger traffic brings only losses.

No they were never different. What makes you think that Lietuvas railways carry more goods than LDZ? They don't.

I just try to figure out why Lietuvas railways ranks higher in that company list. But the second explanation doesn't make sense as well - it can't be that more passenger=more losses. Only, if LG carries their 7 mio passengers in a very short distances (f.e., between Kaunas-Vilnius, and those trains maybe are always fullfilled), while Latvijas dzelzcels their 26 millions - in many longer routes like Riga-Valka, Riga-Liepaja, etc, and that is the factor which creates financial loss.

I just try to figure out why Lietuvas railways ranks higher in that company list. But the second explanation doesn't make sense as well - it can't be that more passenger=more losses. Only, if LG carries their 7 mio passengers in a very short distances (f.e., between Kaunas-Vilnius, and those trains maybe are always fullfilled), while Latvijas dzelzcels their 26 millions - in many longer routes like Riga-Valka, Riga-Liepaja, etc, and that is the factor which creates financial loss.

Passengers make a pure loss to the LG as well. The reason why LG ranks higher - we have both transit and domestic cargo. Transit to Klaipėda mostly comes from Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Then comes transit from mainland Russia to K-grad. Domestic cargo comes from Lifosa (fertilizers), Achema (fertilizers) and Mažeikių Nafta (refined oil products).

In this summer airBaltic opens two more lines - Riga - Visby and Riga - Luleo.
Thus in this summer they start 11 new destinations from Riga.

I heard from some business news that Air Baltic started this year's expansion plans right after it got financial boost from Latvian government. Is it true & how large the aid package was?

Nope, they started their expansion without knowing whether there will be boost or not, they have very good profits now.

Latvian government is shareholder of company and before yesterday it was decided to rise the fixed capital of company from 0,64 mio EUR to 42,7 mio EUR. Latvian government holds 52,6% of shares - thus government invests 22,2 mio EUR - money is taken from the budget of state TV broadcasting centre - which becomes obsolete due to digital TV anyway.

As far as I understand, the fixed capital has to be rised in order to conform with the norms - it is not acceptable to have fixed capital of 0,64 mio for company which has turnover of 293 mio EUR and income - 20 mio EUR.

The question is - should the state go out of profitable enterprise just because it works abroad?

They started the expansion because last year they ordered large numbers of new planes and now they need to put them in use... That's way some weird destinations are now appearing.

OK, back to topic, and speaking about AirBaltic's strategy in Tallinn, here is very fresh news from bbn.com:

Statistics: airBaltic strategy in Tallinn is working

New statistics of airline passengers served by Tallinn Airport shows that the strategy of Latvian carrier airBaltic is working: more people have been flying with airBaltic to Riga to get a connecting flight while less people are taking an Estonian Air flight to Europe.

However, Estonian Air is still a dominant carrier in Tallinn with a market share of 41.4% although it was as high as 45.8% in 2005. In the meantime, the market share of airBaltic in Tallinn has increased from 3.5% in 2005 to 13.1% in 2009. By the way, in 2008 airBaltic handled 6.6% of passengers in Tallinn.

According to Erik Sakkov, sales manager of Tallinn Airport, airBaltic's strategy is to shuttle more Estonian travellers to and from Riga for connecting flights. "This is why airBaltic has rapidly increased the number of flights between Tallinn and Riga," he said, adding that 13.8% of flights departing from Tallinn last year headed for Riga. The figure for Helsinki was 13.5%, followed by Copenhagen with 12.8% and Frankfurt with 6.1%.

Sakkov said that thanks to airBaltic, Riga has already become an important hub for Estonian travellers and competes for them with Helsinki, Copenhagen and Frankfurt. He refused to speculate whether airBaltic could eventually become the largest player in Tallinn Airport. "It depends on the airlines' future strategy and the overall development of the aviation market," he said.

This is so stupid.. Ryanair recently (less than 2 weeks ago) invited Tallinn to become one of its destinations. They would be flying from around 10 places in Europe.. So why the hell are they trying to monopolise travelling in the Baltics to AirBaltic. They can create much more jobs and get more people to Estonia by accepting Ryanair and supporting Estonian Air for non-Ryanair destinations.

+ from an ecological point of view I hate it that they have flights for less than 400km where even a bus is as fast as the plane (no check-in/boarding/you leave/arrive in the centre of the city...)

Ryanair is aiming to pressure the Tallinn Airport to lower its airport fees for the airline close to zero for bringing 1.5 new passengers to Estonia, writes LETA/Eesti Päevaleht.


The low-budget airline sent a letter to concerned parties, asking for lower fees, promising in return to quickly double the number of passengers arriving in Tallinn.



“What they are offering is the same course of action that was banned by the Latvian Competition Board in Riga,” commented Erik Sakkov, a member of the supervisory board of the Tallinn Airport. Last autumn, the Latvian Competition Board ruled that the Riga Airport had to abolish its volume-based fees scheme and advantages provided to Ryanair. As a result, the Latvian airport had to harmonise fees and lower them to other airlines as well.



“It would be hopeless to lower the fees so much that Ryanair would be prepared to fly here,” explained Sakkov. He stated that the airline’s offer includes a demand that from 950,000 passengers onwards the total amount of airport fees would be zero euros, which would include free services.



Currently, the passenger fees applied by the Tallinn Airport alone are 110 kroons per person. Other fees are implemented besides that.



“If the revenue base would be zero, our costs would not go anywhere,” asserted Sakkov, commenting that the airport would be forced to pay for Ryanair’s services from tis own pocket. He calculated that if the airline would reach its objective and transport a million passengers through the Tallinn Airport, the airport would need 130 million kroons to service them.



According to Ryanair’s offer, the airline would bring to Estonia direct flight routes from Milan, Gerona, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Kaunas, Oslo, Stockholm and from London and Madrid.

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/transport/?doc=24506

http://www.economist.com/sites/all/themes/econfinal/images/the-economist-logo.gif

In praise of Vilnius International (http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2010/03/east_european_airports)



ONCE all but off the aviation map after the collapse of Lithuania's national airline, Vilnius is now served by a respectable number of direct flights (at least within Europe). The new de facto national carrier, Star1, is a budget airline that offers bookable seats. The capital city's airport is a mere 15 minutes (maybe a bit more in the rush hour) from the city centre. It has no queues at check-in or security, a departure lounge with plentiful, conveniently placed electrical sockets, free Wi-Fi (and ethernet sockets), and inexpensive Lithuanian food (and beer) on offer in the Lighthouse restaurant.

What other airport offers that level of convenience? Nominations please.

About Gulliver

In this blog, our correspondents inform and entertain business travellers with news, views and reviews that help them make the most of life on the road.

Plane crash in Estonia.

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/551/8807939nwk8nr.jpg

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/6163/8807953ge7j54.jpg

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/4826/8810861we4y1h.jpg

^^
Those crazy Polish pilots :D (no one was hurt,plane had engine failure & landed on Ülemiste lake ice,Tallinn)

It was incredibly lucky to land on the lake when there was a thick layer of ice, as it seems. But how exactly could that have happened?!

^^
It was a Polish cargo plane heading from Helsinki to Tallinn. They had some engine problems with one of their engines. Plane could not make it even to Tallinn's airport (it came approx 2-3km short of runway),so pilots made emergency landing on lake ice. Out of six crew members,one pilot got small injuries but he got out of the hospidal on the same day. Btw,it started sinking through the ice after it stopped (last photo ABC LV posted,is from late evening when rescue workers had stopped airplane sinking) In the evening plane fuel was pumped out & in the night plane was pulled to shore....with this baby (military also came to help rescue workers :yes:):
http://www.mil.ee/~fotek/gallery/pildid/album788/aaz.sized.jpg

Pretty lucky accident :)

airBaltic to Start Oulu-Stockholm :bash:

Riga. 22.03.2010.

On June 1, the Latvian national airline airBaltic will launch a new route from the Finnish City of Oulu to the Swedish capital of Stockholm.

Tero Taskila, Chief Commercial Officer of airBaltic: "In February, airBaltic announced the largest airline expansion in Finland's history, by unveiling seven new routes in a single day. Now we take a step forward, and add the fourth direct airBaltic flight from Oulu to strengthen our service in the Northern Finland. The new Oulu-Stockholm route will add to the existing airBaltic's services to Umea, Lulea, Vaasa, Turku, and encourage business and tourism in the Gulf of Bothnia region."

http://www.airbaltic.com/public/42604.html

^ Is it that bad?! Now that's what is called a wide-scale development model! :cheers: But truly to say, I doubt their existence on Finnish market would last long, too much competiton there!

^ Is it that bad?! Now that's what is called a wide-scale development model!

How about restarting flights to Liepāja, that should be their priority if they call themselves "Latvian national airline" not "encouraging business and tourism in the Gulf of Bothnia region."

They go where profit is. Or we should sink anyone who is more or less successful?

They are state owned, that is the difference, and for a state owned companies first priority should not be profit. By your logic we should completely close all public transport in Latvia because most of trains trams trolleybuses are not profitable at all.

Latvian taxpayers pay to sustain our public transport system a lot more (proportionally) than people in most other industrialized countries. So - yes, my logic tells that we should subsidize public transport to lesser extent (per half or one third) and divert more taxpayer money elsewhere - and still have system of the same quality or better one. But that's different conversation.
- - -
Subsidies (because state investment in state company to keep unprofitable things running is nothing else than subsidies) to 180km long inner flights between two cities while the road between them is with potholes... sounds very interesting during the crisis.
Subsidies to public transport and subsidies to flights are two different things, just like subsidies for buying food and subsidies for buying new golden necklaces.
- - -
Swedish "City Airlines" opens a flight Riga - Gothenburg in 19th April.

airBaltic to Open a Base in Tallinn

Riga. 23.03.2010.

On June 1, the Latvian national airline airBaltic will open a base in the capital of Estonia, to support the airline’s growth at Tallinn Airport. airBaltic will unveil more details about its future plans in Tallinn on March 31 during the opening ceremony of its new direct Tallinn - Tampere flight.

Bertolt Flick, President and CEO of airBaltic: "The Estonian market is significantly underserved and needs more flights. airBaltic made an initial strategic step by adding new seven direct routes from Estonia. We will increase our presence at Tallinn airport by opening a base of airBaltic.

Tallinn will be the first new base to be opened by airBaltic this year. From June, airBaltic will have bases in all three Baltic capitals – Riga, Vilnius and Tallinn."

For Estonia, airBaltic offers seven direct flights from Tallinn (to Turku, Lappeenranta, Tampere, Oulu, Riga, Vilnius, Stockholm), a direct Tartu - Riga flight, and convenient connections over its North Hub Riga to the airlines network of 80 destinations in Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, CIS and the Middle East.

For 2009 airBaltic has announced 20 million EUR preliminary profit, and achieved 6% passenger growth to 2.75 million passengers. In 2010, airBaltic has so far announced eleven new destinations from its Riga hub including Madrid, Belgrade, Vaasa, Umea, Beirut, Amman, Manchester, Rovaniemi, Kuusamo, Visby and Lulea.

Good news :)

Any statistics from Tartu airport for 2010, since the opening of passenger terminal and other developments?

^^ Question in time! It's interesting - is Riga-Tartu route profitable for AirBaltic, if Riga-Liepaja wasn't?

Next Q400.
http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6807107&nseq=4

Some statistics:

In this summer Riga airport will have direct connections to 82 destinations. 1268 flights per week. Four new companies are coming to Riga in this year. In total there are working 16 companies.
- - -
"airBaltic" in this summer will serve more than 100 different routes. They open 11 new lines from Riga, 10 - from Finnish towns, 9 new lines from Lithuania and 4 - from Estonia. In day they will make medium 200 flights.

Great to see AB is getting back to Lithuania, I hope since now they won't be angry about that last-time deserting from Lithuania!
As I know, one of the new lines to be opened from RIX would be Riga-Umeo, thus connecting two European capitals of culture 2014.

Riga has served 344603 passengers in March.
And in three months it has served 914387 passengers.

RIX statistics

January 2009/2010
256685 to 297829 ... +16,02%

February 2009/2010
224600 to 271955 ... +21,08%

March 2009/2010
274681 to 344603 ... +25,45%

Jan - Mar 2009 - 755966
Jan - Mar 2010 - 914387
totaly in first three months +20,95%

VNO statistic

March 2009/2010
112700 ... +24%

Tallinn's Lennart Meri Airport

February 2010

Passengers: 83 945 (-8,5% ,comparing to February 2009) :(
Cargo: 2 044 tons (+11,2% ,comparing to February 2009)

"Star1 Airlines" launches direct flights to Ibiza, Palermo and Heraklion

[2010-03-31]

The Lithuanian low-cost carrier "Star1 Airlines" is launching regular flights to Ibiza (Spain), Palermo (Italy) and Heraklion (Greece). The new summer season destinations are offered for constantly growing number of individual travellers.

"The latest data show that the Lithuanian airports increasingly receive passengers who plan their trips individually. To satisfy their needs, we offer tickets to these well-known vacation destinations thus enabling our clients to individually plan their holidays on the costs of the Mediterranean sea", says Martynas Laivys, the head of "Star1 Airlines".

Flights to Heraklion, the capital city of Crete will be launched on April 24 and shall be operated until mid October. Travellers from Lithuania can reach Ibiza in June and July and Palermo - in July and August.

Known for its colourful night-life Ibiza is considered to be the capital of celebrations and parties. Holidaymakers can visit numerous clubs and have a wonderful time in merrymaking events throughout the night. In addition to nightlife uproar, Ibiza also offers calm moments on the costs of the sky-blue sea.

Palermo, a capital city of Sicily, is the largest island of the Mediterranean Sea. It is a part of Italy, but has own traditions, rich history and culture like an independent country. In addition to such beautiful cities as Palermo, Syracuse and Catania, tourists can admire the island’s wonderful nature and visit the largest active volcano in Europe Etna.

Heraklion is a city located in the Greek island Crete, close to historic ruins of Knossos castle. Among other activities, tourists from Lithuania are offered to visit one of the antique architecture monuments and get acquainted with glorious history of ancient Crete civilisation.

"Summer is a holiday time. With three new holiday destinations in the Mediterranean area we expand the geography of our flights up to eight cities. In the future, we shall continue adding even more holiday destinations from Lithuania", says Mr. Laivys.
www.star1.aero

Tallinn's Lennart Meri Airport

March 2010

Passengers: 83 945 (-8,5% ,comparing to March 2009) :(
Cargo: 2 044 tons (+11,2% ,comparing to March 2009)

I didnt know march was a second month of the year, when did this change occur?

Oh crap. Lol :D I'll fix it now...

Why r u announcing february stats in april then? Besides the public already know from my post on page 98!

^^
'cos I kinda missed your post in the middle of all those RIX related news :D

thats cool aND U'RE RITE there is too much of thaT airBaltic talk at the mo, so here is some estonian -air talk:

Estonian Air announces changes in summer schedule

Estonian Air will resume summer seasonal flights from Stockholm to Pärnu and Kuressaare as follows:
- From 24 April to 19 June and 7 August to 2 October between Stockholm and the Estonian resort town of Pärnu once a week on Saturdays.
- From 25 April to 3 October between Stockholm and Kuressaare once a weekon Sundays, between the period from 3 June to 26 August on Thursdays and Sundays.

Plus a lot other routes added including to Nice, Paris, Rome, Barcelona and Athens, in case chile, Tin Can or other estonian forumers feel toO cold at home, LOL!

SOURCE BBN

Wow, I din't know you have so many active airports in Estonia, such as Pärnu and Kuressaare..! Interesting, how do they manage to survive at this time?!

Don't know if you already have covered this, but Ryanair will start routes between Oslo's second airport Rygge and Riga + Kaunas (http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/04/04/tema/moss_lufthavn/rygge/ryanair/reise/11131345/). Riga starts now, and Kaunas from 5.May.

March saw almost two and a half thousand people fly through Tartu airport, the current goal is to get 27 000 passengers this year. The regular flights started in July, last year, here are the statistics:
March 2438
February 1772
January 1975
December 1989
November 2203
October 2054
September 1652
August 1136
July 528

Wow, I din't know you have so many active airports in Estonia, such as Pärnu and Kuressaare..! Interesting, how do they manage to survive at this time?!
Kuressaare is the second biggest in Estonia after Tallinn, quite a big airport in Estonian circumstances. Pärnu is just a small airport, they do flights to smaller islands and Sweden, but that's only during the summer as far as I know.

And in other news, here is a picture of Estonian Air's Bombardier jet, but why isn't in service? Photo is taken in the US, Estonia Air hasn't fully bought the three planes, although they have already been painted and are waiting.
http://s.ohtuleht.ee/multimedia/images/000157/e9dd417a-7ec5-4eca-acac-0d9471141eea_468.jpg

And in other news, here is a picture of Estonian Air's Bombardier jet, but why isn't in service? Photo is taken in the US, Estonia Air hasn't fully bought the three planes, although they have already been painted and are waiting.
http://s.ohtuleht.ee/multimedia/images/000157/e9dd417a-7ec5-4eca-acac-0d9471141eea_468.jpg

Trouble of financing the purchase,although there have been rumours that the deal was not finished due to Estonian Air board of directors inadequacy :ohno: Btw,I think those planes were finished almost over year ago,simply Bombardier does not want ship them here before Estonian Air pays for them (whenever that happens :no:)

^ Strange situation, even former FlyLAL were getting their planes right after an order, even at their last days..!

What's your source for tartu airport, kr!sto?

Kuressaare Airport gets electronic guiding system (Instrumental Landing System,ILS) for aiding airplane landing during bad weather. Currently Tallinn's Airport (owner of Kuressaare Airport) is having an procurement for the system. System itself should be installed by the end of this year. :) This news comes after Estonian Air complained about lack of such system in Kuressaare. Bad weather had led to canceling of 24 Estonian Air flights (out of 124) to Kuressaare.

Source: http://uudised.err.ee/index.php?06198268

http://www.eareng.ee/public/files/large/Kuresssaare_%20lennujaam.jpg

Cool, looks to me as if Estonia will have a good aviation infrastructure once all the airports have been upgraded with the help of European Cohesion Fund.

Stats from TLN airport for March 2010:

Passengers: 109 280 (-3.8%)

Cargo: 609kg (-70%) what happened to cargo after all the positive growth in first 2 months of the year?

what happened to cargo after all the positive growth in first 2 months of the year?
http://f.postimees.ee/f/2010/03/18/334084t54h61d1.jpg
:D

http://f.postimees.ee/f/2010/03/18/334084t54h61d1.jpg
:D
:lol::lol::lol:
---
to S.T.A.S.: here's the source http://www.tartupostimees.ee/?id=245309

Delightful for Tartu! I think they will be able to reach higher numbers once they add 2-3 more destinations, perhaps helsinki or st.pete?

Cool, looks to me as if Estonia will have a good aviation infrastructure once all the airports have been upgraded with the help of European Cohesion Fund.

Stats from TLN airport for March 2010:

Passengers: 109 280 (-3.8%)

Cargo: 609kg (-70%) what happened to cargo after all the positive growth in first 2 months of the year?

609kg sounds like a seriously large amount of cargo.

^^

well, i think, and tell me if i am wrong, but i thought estonia was in recession or financial downturn, in dat case it does sound large, but they hope next month they will hit the lucky seven hundred! who knows the fate of cargo in estonia...fingers crossed!

609kg sounds like a one average woman's hand baggage :D

^ Yeah, probably the amoount of cargo weight of only one plane! :nuts:

- Turnover of "airBaltic" last year - above 300 mio EUR.
- - -
- Riga airport has managed into world top 100 airports list (No.96) in this Easter in parameter: number of served passengers per week. They had 68 847 seats served in 29th March - 4th April.

^ Just strange to note that despite the very big potential of RIX, the govermental structures have banned the airport expansion.. Just odd thinking of them.. Really hope AB would construct their own terminal asap!

Government did not ban it, government simply decided not to invest.
If that would be sensible investment to increase the capacity of airport to 15 mio passengers, I am sure that government would stay with this - but the investment plan envisaged extension to 30 mio capacity. What is a waste of money - and money we need now :D
The same about railway link to airport - it simply will never pay off. Tram will.

Sorry for flooding Riga news, but that's how it is...
- Ukrainian "AeroSvit" is the fifth newcomer to Riga airport in this year. They start flying Riga - Kyiv 7 times per week in 19th April.
- Next week there is planned to sign a rental agreement of state land for the new "airBaltic" terminal in Riga airport. Thus they will have legal base to start construction there.

Kaunas Airport (KUN)

January-March 2010:

Passengers - 124 033 (+35.2%)
Cargo - 741 tonnes (+72.4%)


Palanga Airport (PLQ)

January-March:

Passengers - 20 080 (+18%)

There are currently 3 direct routes to Copenhagen, Riga and Oslo. ~70% of the passengers fly with SAS to/from Copenhagen. Some rumours here and there that soon the route to Hamburg will be re-opened. 9 other possible destinations are being mentioned - among them Dublin, London, Vilnius, Kyiv, St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Helsinki, Minsk.
Discussions are now ongoing and the airport will most-likely soon be renamed into Klaipeda international airport. It is considered that a step like that alone would significantly increase the flow of passengers. The Airport is barely 25km north of Klaipeda via newly built highway.

http://media.search.lt/GetFile.php?OID=202545&filetype=4

http://www.i-manager.lt/upload/200703/Palangosorouostas4.jpg

- "airBaltic" plans a base in Finland - either in Tampere or in Oulu. This will require investment of some 200 mio EUR and will include purchase of two new airplanes.
- "Ryanair" and Riga airport are negotiating conditions for their base here - "Ryanair" wants to keep two airplanes in Riga.
- "Wizz Air" and Riga airport also are negotiating the conditions for base in Riga - initially they want to keep one airplane here.

- "airBaltic" plans a base in Finland - either in Tampere or in Oulu. This will require investment of some 200 mio EUR and will include purchase of two new airplanes.

Finnish newspaper Kauppalehti claimed that Air Baltic is planning of entering Finnish market and making Finland as their top base (i.e. focusing more on Finnish market) Comment from Air Baltic about Finland: "Finnish airline market is underserved (what? :lol:) and needs more lines"

Source (Finnish,sry) :http://www.kauppalehti.fi/5/i/talous/uutiset/etusivu/uutinen.jsp?oid=2010/04/32412&ext=rss

Meh? :dunno:

In autumn this year "airBaltic" will start total change of their older planes with brand new ones. Over the next three years all their planes will be new, total expected investment - 1 bln EUR.

Currently they have 31 plane:
- 10 Boeing 737-500
- 8 Boeing 737-300
- 2 Boeing 757-200
- 11 Fokker 50
- - -
Growth of "airBaltic" in first three months of this year compared to last year - 25% (in March - per 36%). They have served 624.2 thousand passengers. They plan to renew flights Riga - Liepaja and Liepaja - Scandinavian cities.

Government takes decision to invest LVL 15.6 mln in airBaltic share capital and ensure greater state control
http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/transport/?doc=25807

Interesting how priorities in Latvia and Lithuania are very different. Latvia invests in tourism, including aviation while Lithuania even when situation was very bad (after flyLAL stopped all flights and airbaltic stopped most too) did not even think of investing larger sums to this sphere. Also, for example in Lithuania taxes for hotels were increased while at the same time Latvians are decreasing taxes for hotels. Quite much money were spent promoting Latvia, while Lithuania decreased budget for this purpose too.

I'd take IT and hi-tech (those are probably the main supported spheres in Lithuania these days) over tourism any day but at least a little should be invested to tourism too.

Also, for example in Lithuania taxes for hotels were increased while at the same time Latvians are decreasing taxes for hotels.

Not true. Taxes for hotels, and leisure in general were increased quite rapidly last year.

Not true. Taxes for hotels, and leisure in general were increased quite rapidly last year.
Taxes were decreased in Latvia this March. Now VAT for hotels looks like this: Lithuania 21%, Latvia 10%.

Hmm, interesting, didn't know that. :lol:
http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/business/article.php?id=30833225

Dompcz, support for tourism business in LV can be explained pretty easily - current political establishment are lobbies of aviation and hotel businesses, so there are no surprises concerning their intentions and decisions. I don't think there is any kind of national strategy behind it.

It's bit controversial,that Air Baltic gets such extensive financial support from Latvian state. I'm not saying that financial support is a bad thing,but what would happen if state would decide to cut it's resources? If you look at recent years,then you'll notice Air Baltic extending it's business & buying new planes after it has got money boost from government. IMHO,Air Baltic should be more independent and able to self finance most of it's plans,rather than leeching Latvian money (which is much needed in other sectors)

Just my :2cents:

Don't know the reality but at least mass media over the last days have reported that management of "air Baltic" is ready to develop without any state support - it is state which wants to maintain control over the company. But I would not bet on this information.

There have been rumours that within few days time,agreement might be signed between Estonian government & SAS over the sale of Estonian Air. This would mean that Estonian Air would became goverment controlled,it would also mean more stable & certain future for Estonian Air. :banana:
.
Source: http://www.logistikauudised.ee/?ArticleID=2e327168-5c32-41c0-8e6e-dde51695ac33&readcomment=1#comment

News are just pouring in :D

About Estonian Air sale - Cresco (another Estonian Air shareholder) threatens to leave if Estonian government becomes majority shareholder in Estonian Air. According to their CEO: "governments do not have money nor competence to control airlines"

Source: http://www.e24.ee/?id=253664

Copterline plans to re-open Tallinn-Helsinki helicopter line. :cheers:

http://f.postimees.ee/f/2008/09/08/72265t55h00ec.jpg

Copterline seeks to restore flights,once flight premissions are granted by Civil Aviation Authority. Within few weeks it should be clear how long time it takes to get those documents. Estimated time until first flights should be few months - i.e. Copterline flights should resume in late summer.

Finnish company Copterline had 4.8 million kroons of financial losses in 2008 and had to cut it's service because of low passenger numbers & economic depression.

Source: http://www.tarbija24.ee/?id=253505

Yesterday in Riga airport there was opened new facility - high-tech business aviation hangar. This facility has enough place for storing and servicing eight reactive planes, serving all the whims of these high-demanding clients. Later in July there will be opened new terminal for business aviation with all the high-end facilities for such bonanzas.
- - -
As far as I understand, there was a demand for such "garage" for high-end private clients somewhere between Russia and Western Europe - thus in 1 - 2 hours they can get their beloved private plane wherever they are in this region.
Often am observing these planes from my apartments - sometimes they are quick and noisy as hell, flying as if they are on military mission.

http://y.delfi.lv/norm/53110/1255102_LZN5HP.jpeg

http://y.delfi.lv/norm/53110/1255094_5HhjnU.jpeg

http://y.delfi.lv/norm/53110/1255104_xx1XWD.jpeg

http://y.delfi.lv/norm/53110/1255100_7ksbSY.jpeg

http://y.delfi.lv/norm/53110/1255084_4TPCFK.jpeg

beautiful white floor.

^ Indeed, looks so chick and marvellous! Is this hangar a completely new structure or it's a reconstructed old one?

That hangar is completely new.
- - -
Two days ago in Dubai Riga airport received "Emerging Market Airports Award" in category "Best airport" under 5 mio. This means that Riga is the best medium sized airport in area of world which encompasses Near East, Africa, India, Russia, CIS and Baltic states.

Not bad! I believe someday we'll get this prize as a best big airport! :cheers:

Starting July 3rd airBaltic will offer direct flights Riga-Arhangelsk (Russia), twice per week.

Yesterday checked AirBaltics prices in Riga-Tartu... The cheapest tickets in the nearest time were for 55 Ls... And the more expensive ones were between 200-300 Ls! Are they :nuts:? I would rather go by bycicle all the way to Tartu than pay such sums for a 200 km flight! But apparently, there is a huge demand, otherwise there won't be such prices - one day flights were even sold out! I'm wondering then, is Latvijas Dzelzceļs so incredibly stupid, that they don't collaborate with Estonian side to make normal direct railway connection to tartu, or rather it is because too strong AirBaltic lobby which doesn't let them to do that?

That hangar is completely new.
- - -
Two days ago in Dubai Riga airport received "Emerging Market Airports Award" in category "Best airport" under 5 mio. This means that Riga is the best medium sized airport in area of world which encompasses Near East, Africa, India, Russia, CIS and Baltic states.

Are airports below 5 mio really classifying as "medium sized"? I think, it should have fall at least in 5-10 mio gap to be classified as "medium sized".

OK, I was wrong, it was not termed "medium-sized" it was just called "airports below 55 mio".
I'm wondering then, is Latvijas Dzelzceļs so incredibly stupid, that they don't collaborate with Estonian side to make normal direct railway connection to tartu, or rather it is because too strong AirBaltic lobby which doesn't let them to do that?
I have no direct information but am 100% convinced that the first option is correct.
And they are not exactly stupid, they just concentrate on things which bring more profit - e.g. transport of goods between ports and East. Some hundreds of passengers per week paying some 10 LVL each? Phew, peanuts...
- - -
In first three months this year Riga airport has served 914 th passengers what is per 21% more than last year.""airBaltic" in Riga served per 28,3% more, foreign companies - per 8,6% more than in last year.

Yesterday checked AirBaltics prices in Riga-Tartu... The cheapest tickets in the nearest time were for 55 Ls... And the more expensive ones were between 200-300 Ls! Are they :nuts:?

Very few people flies from Tartu TO Riga and vice verse. RIX is used only as transit point. That is way tickets on Tartu-Riga route costs almost as much as Tartu-London (via rix). Otherwise flights would be unprofitable.





Passenger turnover at the airport “Rīga” continues to grow. In the 1st quarter of 2010 there were 914.4 thsd passenger arrivals at and departures from the airport, an increase of 21 % if compared to the 1st quarter of 2009.

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/analytics/images/text/100429_airports_lv.JPG
Passenger arrivals at and departures from the airport “Rīga” by quarters (thsd passengers)


In the 1st quarter of 2010 609.3 thsd passengers using Latvian airlines arrived at and departed from the airport „Rīga” which is an increase of 28.3 % if compared to the 1st quarter of previous year. However 305.1 thsd passengers arrived at and departed from the airport “Rīga” using foreign airlines, which is an increase of 8.6 % if compared to January – March of previous year.



The largest passenger turnover at the airport „Rīga” in the 1st quarter of 2010 was with the airports of Germany – 122.5 thsd passengers, which is more by 8.9 % if compared to the 1st quarter of 2009, with the airports of Great Britain – 116.8 thsd passengers – an increase of 34.9 % and with the airports of Finland – 80.5 thsd passengers, 1.6 times increase if compared with the 1st quarter of 2009.

How is Vilnius airport doing compared to Kaunas? Which airlines are flying in Vilnius still?

http://y.delfi.lv/norm/53110/1255102_LZN5HP.jpeg

http://y.delfi.lv/norm/53110/1255084_4TPCFK.jpeg

Looks like a James Bond movie scene with this white floor. Who are the good guys, the criminals, the bodyguards, the crazy scientist, the financer? And... Good Heavens M, where is 007? Where is the golden pistol... Is there any special rocket of mister Q hidden in the fuselage of the plane? My God, this damn button on this Q gadget does not work... And where are the sexy blond girls??? Maybe no girls, no James... But God knows girls are pretty in Latvia... Even a blond festival takes place in Riga... James should know about it :lol:

In april RIX has served 296439 passengers.
And in first four months it has served 1210825 passengers.

Today "airBaltic" starts flights Riga-Belgrade, three times per week.

^ That's a very perspective addition to their routes because since now we'll be opened to Balkans, as well as we'll be able to travel to this exotic-before (for us, Baltic people) but at the same time magnificent region! :cheers:

Riga airport statistics in April 2010 were worse than year ago - this is unique after so many years of continuous growth:
- In April served 296 430 passengers, per 9.2% less than last year.

Volcanoe is guilty this time.

In four months 2010 Riga has served 1 210 816 passengers, per 11.9% more than in 2009. Riga currently is 97th largest airport in the world if calculated by number of passenger seats per week.

^^ Yes, that's what I read today, that RIX is included in TOP 100 Busiest Airports list! :banana: Great strategy! :cheers:

That is not the first time

Today airBaltic starts flying Tallinn - Oulu. One way ticket - from 39 EUR.

At first airbaltic loudly announced new routes from Vilnius, now silently one by one they are closing them and redirecting through Riga. They were playing such games many times before. Actually I'm surprised that people still choose this company. It looks like now they closed Vilnius-Amsterdam but as before, they did not announce it anywhere.

Actually I'm surprised that people still choose this company.
We have no choice in Latvia. And we perfectly know, that AirBaltic isn't always honest.

We have no choice in Latvia. And we perfectly know, that AirBaltic isn't always honest.
Well, if I lived in Latvia I would have used airbaltic too. I doubt there are such issues with them as in Vilnius airport.

I doubt there are such issues with them as in Vilnius airport.

Actually, there are many issues with them in Riga too. They lie about the prices. They open routes and close them 1-2 months later. And so on and so forth. :)

^ In these times it's probably one of the very few possible strategies for such a company to stay in pluses! Otherwise, the profit would go away when one by one some lines will be announced being closed because thus expanding their destination list would be impossible!

^ In these times it's probably one of the very few possible strategies for such a company to stay in pluses! Otherwise, the profit would go away when one by one some lines will be announced being closed because thus expanding their destination list would be impossible!
I feel perfectly OK if Latvian company owns the local market but honesty in business is important too.
At the same time - I myself have never had any problem with them. It seems normal if they announce new destinations in loud. From the other side - if they have no success with these lines - should they put themselves under a hammer of publicity by announcing - "no, there was no success, we close it"?

I feel perfectly OK if Latvian company owns the local market but honesty in business is important too.
At the same time - I myself have never had any problem with them. It seems normal if they announce new destinations in loud. From the other side - if they have no success with these lines - should they put themselves under a hammer of publicity by announcing - "no, there was no success, we close it"?
No success or just trying to increase passenger numbers in Riga in any possible way? Btw, usually when companies open new routes they do not expect great success from first month (except some special routes).

"Should they put themselves under a hammer of publicity blah blah blah..."

People learn about their redirected flights through Riga from some internet blogs. Is that normal for you Gatis?

People learn about their redirected flights through Riga from some internet blogs.
I think, that's okay. :)

^^
I think that flight companies should inform their clients about changes. :yes:

I think you exaggerate a bit, Dompcz. This cannot be just the way you say this.. I bet they at least send some information on your email or your mobile phone.. But do you have to pay something in addition if your flight was redirected through Riga?

I think you exaggerate a bit, Dompcz. This cannot be just the way you say this.. I bet they at least send some information on your email or your mobile phone.. But do you have to pay something in addition if your flight was redirected through Riga?
I'm reading one blog which mostly writes about aviation and some people here say that they bought tickets to Amsterdam and they were not informed about redirected flights. As for payment, of course you don't have to pay anything.

I'm reading one blog which mostly writes about aviation and some people here say that they bought tickets to Amsterdam and they were not informed about redirected flights. As for payment, of course you don't have to pay anything.

I wouldn't trust some random people and make any conclusions based only on information from one source. :)

Do they really cheat Lithuanians specifically? I doubt it. F.e. once my flight was rescheduled per one day - one day later. "air Baltic" gave me a message on e-mail and mobile phone and offered either to take this "one day later" or get compensated in full. I choose the later and in a few days time money was on my account. Would be happy if all businesses made it that simple.

To me it sounds like "black marketing" or just envy - Internet is cheap and easy way to spread such rumours, especially in Lithuania, where the attitudes after the "epic fail" of FlyLAL are very ...khm... special.

Do they really cheat Lithuanians specifically? I doubt it. F.e. once my flight was rescheduled per one day - one day later. "air Baltic" gave me a message on e-mail and mobile phone and offered either to take this "one day later" or get compensated in full. I choose the later and in a few days time money was on my account. Would be happy if all businesses made it that simple.

To me it sounds like "black marketing" or just envy - Internet is cheap and easy way to spread such rumours, especially in Lithuania, where the attitudes after the "epic fail" of FlyLAL are very ...khm... special.
This short summer if i'm not mistaken airbaltic have already closed 4 destinations from Vilnius and also decreased number of flights to some other routes, this way trying to increase passenger numbers flying through Riga.

As for other part of your comment - actually I'm quite surprised how Latvians are defending their company no matter what. Here we bash all our biggest companies for many things while it looks like in Latvia you have such attitude as if you had one company which you need to defend for it and whole Latvian economy to survive. :)

Believe me, if it would be somewhat bad company, Latvians would be the first ones to thread it deep below the level of soil. We are quick at criticising ourselves. Our you see some real reasons to criticise them? (none mentioned so far here)

Thus far for "airBaltic" it is not that important to rise the level of passengers in Riga - their interest is to move around as many passengers as possible in order to rise their profit. It is not important if this passenger steps in their airplane in Riga or in Vilnius, he pays money and only money here counts.
When "airBaltic" will build their own terminal in Riga, things theoretically might become different.

^ Very right! AB wants to create a dominance in this region, thus expanding its bases to Lithuania, Estonia and Finland is just the first steps. :| In case of AB, their strategy is intended on amount of passengers, no matter which airport would they chose. As long as any destination brings profit, it is surviving, but situation with uneconomical routes is simple - they are closed down and the new directions instead are being opened!

...but situation with uneconomical routes is simple - they are closed down and the new directions instead are being opened!
^
Those routes Air Baltic opened recently in Finland come to my mind... :|


Not being too serious: people only fly Air Baltic once - after their are treated like...ummm...luggage and have had shifted,canceled & redirected through Riga (no matter where they were going) AND billed for all this they're finally fed up :lol:


jk...or maybe not ;)

I haven't travelled with AirBaltic since 2004 (it only happened once though... not because I disliked them but simply because all other times I had better options) and judging from what I see here or in some news sources, it's just the ABs marketing strategy.

AirBaltic chose an aggressive expansion strategy which means they introduce many new routes but can also cancel them if they're not providing enough profit. It is an excellent way of doing this kind of expansion because they will simply take the best and most popular routes and drop the rest. It is excellent thinking from the business point of view and is employed by other airlines (especially low-cost).

This kind of strategy causes some potential side effects though. Some customers will dislike the fact that their flight is re-routed or simply cancelled without a long notice or other sufficient actions. So looking at it purely from a customer-service point of view is a little like playing with fire. It can end up ok, but can also mean a PR disater if people get really fed-up and spread the bad word of mouth as some of us are doing it here. ;)

The question for AirBaltic now is whether the positive effects will outweigh the negative ones. It seems that they think so because they keep doing things their way. And I understand them. If things will not work well for them they will have to change it.

Also, it is a good chance for other airlines to take action and offer better service on such routes where AB is messing around. This is what I wish.

^ Perhaps, but anyway their strategy works more than fine! Why wouldn't they try using your mentioned strategy when it's very profitable and as long as it suit the customers in terms of directions and prices all that would bring success to AB!?

And I agree that there should come some new airline player for this region so that the competition would rise and as a result of what, we, the customers, would only benefit rather a lot from that. How are the things going with new Lithuanian air-carrier f.i.?

Also, it is a good chance for other airlines to take action and offer better service on such routes where AB is messing around. This is what I wish.

Who will want to invest in unprofitable routes?

Who will want to invest in unprofitable routes?

Why not to make them profitable then? That's why there is marketing.

Why not to make them profitable then? That's why there is marketing.

Cmon. Baltic region is too less populated & economically undeveloped, to sustain many different routes, and no marketing can help there. There will always be some very popular "key" routes (UK, Ireland, Germany cities, etc.), some +/- succesful and some completely inperspective where to invest in marketing would be just waste of money.

Cmon. Baltic region is too less populated & economically undeveloped, to sustain many different routes, and no marketing can help there. There will always be some very popular "key" routes (UK, Ireland, Germany cities, etc.), some +/- succesful and some completely inperspective where to invest in marketing would be just waste of money.

Such as... China? :)

Such as... China? :)

I'm not speaking about specific routes, just in general.
Hard to say about exactly China. If we would get just 0,000... % Chinese interested to visit Baltic states, then it would already be significant passenger flow, of course :) So, I think in this case it could rather be worth to try out marketing.

^ And that's the right direction - we should be marketed on the East, where no one has ever heard of Baltics. Believe me, that would definately bring here huge amount of visitors due to the mases of population there and their search for unexplored! ;)

Tallinn's Airport has uncovered part of it's future plans in transportation convention held here. Within 10 years they plan to further extend airport runway,add one more taxiway and construct new passenger/cargo terminal. According to Tallinn's Airport CEO Rein Loik,airport has potential to increase it's traffic volumes by 4 times.

Link: http://www.logistikauudised.ee/?ArticleID=20f81bf6-27f1-4e26-9403-34694158645f

Tallinn's Airport has uncovered part of it's future plans in transportation convention held here. Within 10 years they plan to further extend airport runway,add one more taxiway and construct new passenger/cargo terminal. According to Tallinn's Airport CEO Rein Loik,airport has potential to increase it's traffic volumes by 4 times.

Link: http://www.logistikauudised.ee/?ArticleID=20f81bf6-27f1-4e26-9403-34694158645f

With what airlines :s.

They declined a Ryanair offer who would open 10 direct routes to Tallinn.. As far as I know there's only Lufthansa with 1/2 direct flights from Germany, Estonian Air with maybe 10 direct flights from EU and airBaltic with some flights to Riga 8) (and easyjet with one flight to London).

When next Q400 (Air Baltic) landing at EVRA??

and :banana2:

10390467

With what airlines :s.

They declined a Ryanair offer who would open 10 direct routes to Tallinn.. As far as I know there's only Lufthansa with 1/2 direct flights from Germany, Estonian Air with maybe 10 direct flights from EU and airBaltic with some flights to Riga 8) (and easyjet with one flight to London).

Cheap airlines :D It's clear that TLL needs to cut back airport taxes for it's survival,but as far as I know,even now there are few companies interested of Tallinn's airport. Ryanair was (and still is) one of them,but they wanted downright cheap deal with airport (basically they didn't want to pay any airport taxes) so they have been arguing with TLL for some time over it. One more budget airline has shown interest and there have been murmurs about possible Asian players entering here. It's been clear for some time now that we can't compete with RIX,so basically all this is now purely for our airport survival. If Tallinn's airport fails to increase it's passenger,cargo & airlines to/from TLL numbers,then we can kiss our airport goodbye and only option for future air travel would be through Riga & Helsinki (those greedy Latvians & Finns :ohno:)

Nice video of Estonian Air's Boeing getting a new paintjob for advertising European Culture Capital 2011 - Tallinn.

11104018

Before:
http://images3.jetphotos.net/img/1/8/4/2/93827_1269770248.jpg

After:
http://images2.jetphotos.net/img/1/5/4/9/88001_1272400945.jpg

^^
Very nice. The new paintjob looks like snowflakes. :)

Btw, continuing the discussion about AirBaltic. There are quite a few customer reviews in Skytrax. Seemingly most negative reviews are dissatisfied with AB's bad customer service. http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/baltic.htm

^ So what? Would this change the perspectives of AB expansion f.e.? Taking into account the news about potential of Tallinn airport, I think they could try make one more base there, thus any reviews are absolutey nonsense, as if this would really change attitude of people towards this company?

So nothing. All I'm saying is that those opinions about bad service are probably not taken out of the blue. I cannot predict if this will eventually jeopardize the expansion of airbaltic but it most definitely will not make it better.

is this the baltic airport topic, or the topic of airbaltic discussions ?

Its just a fact, there will always be people, who will dislike some certain companies, products etc. Like I, for example, hate Cinamon cinema in Riga, where their worker insulted me once ... so lets just stick to the real topic here ok ? :) Idd really love to see newest figures for all three airports!

^ So what? Would this change the perspectives of AB expansion f.e.? Taking into account the news about potential of Tallinn airport, I think they could try make one more base there, thus any reviews are absolutey nonsense, as if this would really change attitude of people towards this company?

Doesn't matter, most Estonians dislike AB already. :D

Like it or not but that is the only company you will fly.

Like it or not but that is the only company you will fly.

That is quite a bold statement I must say. Is Airbaltic keeping such a strong position in Estonia?

Nah, I am only trolling, just like AB haters here. :lol:

Is Airbaltic keeping such a strong position in Estonia?

:|

http://www.tallinn-airport.ee/upload/Editor/Statistika/TOP%2010%20vedajad%202009.jpg

Nah, I am only trolling, just like AB haters here. :lol:

Well,it's truth that Air Baltic doesn't care much about passengers,while they do care about profits. You can call that trolling if you like,but that's a FACT. :bash:

:|
Well,it's truth that Air Baltic doesn't care much about passengers,while they do care about profits. You can call that trolling if you like,but that's a FACT. :bash:

"Facts"? From where does your facts come from? Some AB hater estonian delfi comment pages? AB planes are not breaking up mid-air with falling shelves, opening doors like Estonian Air planes constantly does, nor does AB planes are regularly grounded, flights cancelled "for technical reasons" like Estonian air.
http://www.bbn.ee/article/2010/05/21/Estonian_Air_cancels_two_flights_today

Every company is working for profit, thanks for discovering America. AB is one of the most punctual airlines in the world with the 15-minute punctuality - 91.3%, punctuality of AEA (Association of European Airlines) members on average was 83.2%.

Doesn't matter, most Estonians dislike AB already. :D


Comments like this are trolling. Get your facts right. Number of Estonians who use AB grows daily (close to +40% this year), usage of African Air (sorry Estonian air) is falling.

AB is one of the most punctual airlines in the world with the 15-minute punctuality - 91.3%, punctuality of AEA (Association of European Airlines) members on average was 83.2%.

And that's nice. But most problems with Air Baltic aren't related with punctuality,but with odd ticket pricing (buy a ticket online and you might discover that several taxes & costs were not included),re-directed flights (if I step on Air Baltic direct flight from Tallinn to whatever destination,then I expect it to be a direct flight,not a flight with sudden Tallinn-Riga-whatever destination. It's friggin time consuming to travel such way :no:) and ground service (try complaining to Air Baltic help lines,they usually tell you to f**k off...if they even bother to do that...)

Just look for any airline review sites (I hope you're not like Triceratops,claiming that airline reviews don't mean a thing :D),they all point out those short comings. What Pansori posted,wasn't exactly smth new. Plus I personally can add my & my friends experiences with Air Baltic.

That said,Estonian Air is equally bad :D Poor food and canceled flights :ohno: plus occasionally their planes tend to hit few birds :D

What "reviews"? Some 5 trolling comments on some unknown random site? You got to be joking. Needless to say there are more positive "reviews" on that site than negative.

re-directed flights (if I step on Air Baltic direct flight from Tallinn to whatever destination,then I expect it to be a direct flight,not a flight with sudden Tallinn-Riga-whatever destination. It's friggin time consuming to travel such way :no:)

This is done because in our tiny market it is not profitable to keep direct flights to many destination with keeping low prices. No politics, no hatred toward Estonia only business. I don't believe that you were not informed before flight that your plane will be redirected through RIX and option to get refund was not offered.

r and ground service (try complaining to Air Baltic help lines,they usually tell you to f**k off...if they even bother to do that...)


Never had any problems with AB staff.

Nice video of Estonian Air's Boeing getting a new paintjob for advertising European Culture Capital 2011 - Tallinn.

11104018

Before:
http://images3.jetphotos.net/img/1/8/4/2/93827_1269770248.jpg

After:
http://images2.jetphotos.net/img/1/5/4/9/88001_1272400945.jpg

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Air-Baltic/Boeing-737-505/1541059/L/&sid=c8778d297329d8f6b82683f53f59ee9e

This plane in its former colours.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/5231/1541059.jpg

Yeah that's right, AB disposed their oldest 737 (cn 24646/2138) (20 years) and guess who got it...
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?cnsearch=24646/2138&distinct_entry=true

I wish luck to Estonians who will fly on this plane, you will need it. This plane was viewed as the worst in the whole AB fleet.

^^

Why are you defending Air Baltic so hysterically? You're just making yourself look bad and not doing anything good for Air Baltic either.

Why are Estonians and Lithuanians bashing AB so hysterically? :D Most of criticism here is based on emotions. Tallink is the only company operating from Riga passenger port, but I have never heard anyone here writing anything bad about it, although there is a lot to tell.

Why are Estonians and Lithuanians bashing AB so hysterically? :D Most of criticism here is based on emotions. Tallink is the only company operating from Riga passenger port, but I have never heard anyone here writing anything bad about it, although there is a lot to tell.

they are just envy

ABC_LV, have you ever considered that all of this criticism might have actual basis? AirBaltic provides poor service. However, you get what you pay for (although you can never be sure how much you actually have to pay, in this case). I have yet to see any other airline that has a board staff with barely any English knowledge. Not to mention the deceiving flight information, which has almost become the definition of AB.

I'm not sure if you're just very paranoid, or you generally enjoy generating dramas on the forums. First, making a EA vs AB comparison with some bitter remarks. Then getting even more embarrassing, throwing Tallink into the 'game'. Try to realise, it isn't about who or where provides the service but how the service is provided.

That said,Estonian Air is equally bad :D Poor food and canceled flights :ohno: plus occasionally their planes tend to hit few birds :D

Estonian Air is quite known for its digusting food. However, from my own experience, I can tell you that things seem to have improved A LOT in this department. Sadly, it is the only department where any changes have taken place in the past few years. :nuts: Oh well, at least you don't have to be horrified when flying with EA, unlike some other airlines that come to my mind... (excluding the birds ofc. :lol: )

they are just envious

That's a bit ignorant. Estonians are fairly envious people, however, they do not hesitate to fly with AB or any other airline if it offers service with a reasonable price (which it often does) to their destination. Average Joe doesn't think of it as "it's AB, a Latvian company, damn them and their huge fleet". The general negative attitude towards AB is because of the bad experience. People do not like to feel like luggages.

Why are Estonians and Lithuanians bashing AB so hysterically? :D Most of criticism here is based on emotions. Tallink is the only company operating from Riga passenger port, but I have never heard anyone here writing anything bad about it, although there is a lot to tell.

Actually it's not a bad idea to read those comment at Skytrax website. There are some good comments but the bad ones typically criticize their bad customer service. Are they just trolling or what? ;)

Airbaltic shows that successful Latvian business which Latvians are so proud of and defend here at any cost = business when taxpayers pay to support it. :D

As for "they open and then shortly after close and then shortly after open and then shortly after close.... routes just to keep being profitable". Let me remind you that they fly to some Finnish/Swedish, etc. villages with almost empty planes from Riga.

Btw, in some advertisements they still show that they have direct routes to some ~10 destinations from Vilnius while in reality they don't.

I guess my posts about the topic are being ignored and your little silly war goes on. So sad :(

Like it or not but that is the only company you will fly.
So true :lol:

I guess my posts about the topic are being ignored and your little silly war goes on. So sad :(
Well, usually when your statement is correct, nobody can reply. :) That's the way it is.
P.S. There is a sharp rivalry between Baltic States.

Hey, I'm surprised that FlyLAL/Charter still somehow exists, at least on that diagramme, where it even holds the fourth place in passenger transportation in Estonia! But the level of AB is too low, I think, probably these figures are completely not up-to-date! What interests me a lot is how does AB in Finland, has it managed to raise the competition a lot there?

^^ Only "flyLAL" regular flights company does not exist. Other companies including "flyLAL charters" still exist ("Avia Solutions Group" www.aviasg.com). Currently "flyLAL charters" fly from Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Italy.

Hey, I'm surprised that FlyLAL/Charter still somehow exists, at least on that diagramme, where it even holds the fourth place in passenger transportation in Estonia! But the level of AB is too low, I think, probably these figures are completely not up-to-date! What interests me a lot is how does AB in Finland, has it managed to raise the competition a lot there?

This diagram isn't up to date (it's 2009 end of the year statistics),but new data is released at beginning of next year,so it's the only diagram currently available. Oddly enough,both KLM and Lufthansa have rather low % of flights in Estonian market.

Anyway,I predict that future,2010 statistics will feature Polish LOT again,as it's flying from Tallinn again.

Stop that fight against Air Baltic. Who refused Estonian Air to buy plenty of planes and open plenty of routes? Thanks to Air Baltic flying from Tallinn is cheaper. Baltic people must support each other in every level not fight like kids.

But about future I think that passenger numbers continue to decrease. We are not yet in the bottom of crisis. Next winter will be really rough. What might help is that people find work in foreign countries and sometimes fly "home".

Tourists don't come here until there is no normal rail travel in Baltics. All tourist who wanted to travel outside capital asked where I can get on train. And I have to answer..... we have really poor rail service, next train leaves after 4 hours and you can't get back today. You can take bus. And then he/she answers no thanks.

Baltic people must support each other in every level not fight like kids.

Implying that a Latvian-centered monopolistic airline is a healthy form of Baltic co-operation.

Who refused Estonian Air to buy plenty of planes and open plenty of routes?

As if that is why airBaltic is successful.

Estonian Air failed because of mixture of SAS plans to make it a low cost carrier like Easyjet and incompetent company leaders. I really hope,that whoever buys SAS shares in Estonian Air,will fire board of directors & CEO.

Implying that a Latvian-centered monopolistic airline is a healthy form of Baltic co-operation.

Give a better solution than it's now. If you don't have any then
don't point finger at those who give the situation that is now.

Give a better solution than it's now. If you don't have any then
don't point finger at those who give the situation that is now.
Sure there is better solution for him:

Estonian-centered monopolistic airline.
That would take all arguments away.

Implying that a Latvian-centered monopolistic airline is a healthy form of Baltic co-operation.

As if that is why airBaltic is successful.
Baltic market is way too small for small national airlines to compete between themselves and with stronger foreign players.

I am Ok with Latvian based AirBaltic dominating Baltic airline market.
Estonian Tallink dominating sea-line market .
Lithuanian Maxima dominating with their supermarket chains.

There are probably way more examples like those above.

Tomorrow starts June and in few days Tallinn's Airport will release it's May statistics. It would be interesting to see,if airport finally manages to break it's bad season and has positive statistics. April was really bad,both passengers (88 579, -20,5%) and cargo (417 tons, -41,8%) numbers were disappointing. :sleepy:

I really hope,that whoever buys SAS shares in Estonian Air,will fire board of directors & CEO.

Word! Estonian Air's greatest achievement in the past decade is changing its menu. Instead of sauerkraut, they are now offering salad; instead of marinated herring, we have now chicken fillet. Great success.

I really hope,that whoever buys SAS shares in Estonian Air,will fire board of directors & CEO.

This most definitely worked for Vilnius Airport. It used to have some long-term homo-Sovieticus CEO for years who used to employ his family members and generally be incompetent and useless. After he got sacked things started changing for good. It happened way too late (about 15 years I would say) but better later than never.

Vilnius International Airport is among the fastest growing airports in Europe

2010-05-31 16:13

According to the data published in the quarterly airport review of ACI EUROPE (European Region of Airports Council International) for the first quarter of this year, Vilnius International Airport (VIA) is one of the fastest growing airports in Europe.

VIA is in the third place among 106 European airports in terms of the increase in the number of flights. The number of flights served at VIA during the first quarter of 2010 amounted to 5,863, which is 24.5 per cent more than during the same quarter of 2009.

Brussels South Charleroi Airport (Belgium) and Antalya Airport (Turkey) are the two fastest growing airports in Europe with the actual increase in the number of flights amounting to 49.2 and 28.4 respectively. In terms of this particular indicator, VIA is the leader among the airports situated in the capital cities of Europe, most of which witnessed a reduction or only a slight increase in the number of flights.

As compared to the neighbouring countries, the growth in the number of flights served at VIA was the fastest with that in Riga Airport amounting to 11.1 per cent (13 912 flights) and the number of flights served at Tallinn Airport going down by 3.4 per cent (5 968 flights).

"The figures and tendencies show that the company has chosen the right strategy, and that competitive pricing, effective management and the optimisation of business processes at Vilnius International Airport have resulted in positive outcomes," – says Director General of VIA Tomas Vaišvila.

ACI EUROPE in its review says that VIA is in the fifteenth position in Europe among 106 airports according to the growth in the number of passengers.

"The chosen strategy and the decisions taken some time ago are bringing the expected results. We already see the increasing number of routs and flights to Vilnius International Airport. Yet another important step would be to increase the flow of passengers travelling to this region, however this is the task that needs to be undertaken together with the institutions responsible for tourism," – says Mr. Eligijus Masiulis, the Minister of Transport and Communications.

Currently 15 airlines are operating regular routs from Vilnius and offering their passengers 25 direct flights.

http://sc.bns.lt/index.php?item=93926&id=3&subid=43


Not for long I guess, since airbaltic is closing most of their routes.

Here's few Estonian Air statistics (four months,since January 2010)

Number of passengers on Estonian Air flights (comparing to last year,same period: -10,5%):
From Tallinn:144101
From Vilnius: 4409
From Pärnu,Kuressaare and Tartu,all combined: 1749
Total number of passengers: 150259
Total number of flights: 3081 (comparing to last year,same period: -3,5%)

Sorry, I'm still not happy with having to fly through RIX just to get to wherever I need to go next. I think it's not too much for each country to organise their own key destinations and not attack other markets with cheap business tactics, just to screw consumers over later.

If AirBaltic was more consumer-friendly or in fact a fair player on the airline market I wouldn't have these gripes.

And please, do continue bestowing upon me your own nationalist hypocrisy.

But this is not so really disappointing with Estonian Air as their decrease was much bigger few months back, so they do their best, at least they manage to survive even with such drop both in passengers and cargo, what a company! :cheers:

EA is like rotting fish - it's probably not healthy and gets worse over time, but the Scandinavians aren't throwing it away and still see some value in it...

EA is like rotting fish - it's probably not healthy and gets worse over time, but the Scandinavians aren't throwing it away and still see some value in it...

Haahaa! :lol:

- Swedish government in open tender has chosen "airBaltic" to serve the government in 99 directions between Sweden, Europe, Near East and CIS. Earlier "airBaltic" won tenders and is serving government of Finland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland.
After winning this tender "airBaltic" is the exclusive airport serving the travael of government employees in these respective countries.
- - -
"airBaltic" today starts flights from Riga to Amman, 2 times per week, . Tomorrow there starts flight from Riga to Beirut.
- - -
"airBaltic" today starts flying Stockholm - Oulu.
- - -
"airBaltic" today opens a base in Tallin. They also open flight Tallinn - Stockholm. Now they have seven destinations from Tallinn.

P.S. Give a message if airBaltic silently closes some of flights in Tallinn and Vilnius and deliberately "move passengers" to Riga, give also some proof. So far nothing is heard.
They often close flights also from Riga - f.e. there were no announcements when they closed flights to several Ukrainian cities. Passengers just got early warnings, compensations etc. and flights some day disappeared from tables.

P.S. Give a message if airBaltic silently closes some of flights in Tallinn and Vilnius and deliberately "move passengers" to Riga, give also some proof. So far nothing is heard.
Exactly, nothing is heard, there are even misleading adds in Vilnius where they show all routes. While in reality those routes does not exist. Try buying Vilnius-Amsterdam for example at their website. Those who bought were offered flight through Riga instead. So far they closed about half of their routes from Vilnius, you can also check it on their website.

Sounds like negligence - created by lack of competition and control, and yes, some arrogance. From profit-point of view they should have interest in having more passengers wherever they are - in Vilnius or in Riga. Thus I don't think that they have interest to push people to Riga.

^ Exactly! And the fact that they are opening a new base in Tallinn is a proof for that. They are indeed interested in passengers from other countries using their company and not from RIX but vice-versa - the more people chose to fly with AB from any other country and not to Latvia, the better!

New RIX statistics.
In May:
Passengers: 410101
Flights: 6217
Cargo: 541

Total this year:
Passengers: 1620917
Flights: 25289
Cargo: 4089

^ Exactly! And the fact that they are opening a new base in Tallinn is a proof for that. They are indeed interested in passengers from other countries using their company and not from RIX but vice-versa - the more people chose to fly with AB from any other country and not to Latvia, the better!

I followed this discussion on good and bad air Baltic for some time, without ever intervening. But ok, this time I believe I can say smth, notably since I've been a frequent BT passenger for years.

First, I understand why Latvian friends are so proud of BT, but please please stop insulting other people or countries. Especially since most of the things /BT critics are writing here are in fact correct (unfortunately).

Triceratops, there is nothing encouraging about BT opening a base in Tallinn. Everyone was very happy when BT opened a base in LT, but they gradually closed practically all the routes once FlyLAL was declared bankrupt (if they would be interested in flying from other bases than RIX, they would have opened new routes instead of closing existing ones). Instead, VNO was left with two BT destinations: RIX and CPH.

Another interesting thing was how they explained closing the routes from VNO: BT said that LT was in deep economic crisis and therefore they had to withdraw (quite strange to hear this from Latvia, isn't it?) These "explanations" were published in their in-flight magazine. In addition, BT spread this info on the "big crisis in LT" to its regular customers in Germany (great promotion for LT and a "perfect" example of Baltic cooperation:)

Let's not be sentimental: as a company BT is behaving logically: their business model is to develop RIX as a hub. But also, let's not be naive: BT has no long-term strategy to develop hubs in other places than RIX. The strategy is Riga-based: to cover as many countries/airports in the region as possible with feeder-services into RIX. BT's presence in Baltic airports is no good in the long-run for EE, LT or Finland. Because at the end of the day they will kill the local airlines (I guess the first victim would be Estonian Air) and then shut down their routes and send everyone via RIX.

This spring, VNO changed its tarriff policy, hoping to attract new airlines. Of course, BT rushed in, opening flights to Hannover, Munich, Amsterdam, Berlin, etc. (all do not exist anymore). What they did in fact, was to discourage other airlines from coming into the market, because this would mean loosing passengers. Once that threat vanished (and sometimes for other reasons, like being pushed out by other airlines - Estonian Air on AMS route, SAS on CPH route (left with one flight only) they close those routes. Of course, probably the LF wasn't very high either, but it's absolutely normal to have a relatively low LF for the first months. If BT had planned to work on those routes in long-term, they would have kept them. But it looks like they might have two goals: short-term financial benefit (quick one, and if LF is not too high, they go away), and keeping competitors out (the new competitors won't come until the new schedules are in force, so they can fly everyone via RIX for the next 4 months).

This is also beneficial for RIX airport, since people who buy a direct ticket from VNO or TLL to e.g. TXL, will be directed via RIX (i.e. more passengers in RIX and more passengers for BT (If I'm not mistaken, the methodology of air travel statistics is to count each travel segment individually, i.e. if you fly VNO-RIX-TLL return, it means BT carried and RIX served four passengers).

I do not want to offend the BT fans here, but I hope this comment explained a bit why BT is becoming increasingly unpopular outside Latvia. It's not about being jealous, but about an agressive business strategy they have. Again, as I said, there's nothing bad as a strategy for a company, but it's bad for other airports (outside Latvia), other air carriers and travellers in the long-run, of course.

That's some good writing, stranded passenger. Seems you know a thing or two about the topic. :okay:

^^

+1 :) ...and welcome to the forum,stranded passenger!

Stranded passenger, you are just a jealous lithuanian nationalist. Air Baltic is a jewel and a pride of Latvia. So, no objective points considering Air Baltic are allowed here. Cause otherwise we will boycott your Maximas and all the remaining lithuanian companies here in Latvia!

P.S. A proud fan of Air Baltic :cheers: :lol:

Stranded passenger, I don't agree that the current Vilnius cuts are part of some nasty BT plans for leaving VNO without services and somehow gaining profit out of this. BT initially (in January) had a good schedule for 2x737 and 1xF50 with 3 daily rotations for each aircraft. But Oslo, Manchester, Hamburg and Munich routes failed leaving these aircrafts with rather low utilization; meanwhile Riga base is facing lack of aircraft. So what would you do? Does it make a sense to continue all the expensive wet-leases at Riga while there are under-used aircrafts at Vilnius? – I think no. Now the summer schedule from VNO is designed for one 737 by dropping some less perspective flights - one daily CPH (fully covered by SAS), AMS (covered by Estonian) and Berlin (Ryanair flies from KUN). And TLL and DUB will now be operated with Riga-based aircraft.
Does this harm BT reputation? – Yes. Does this effect further bookings negatively? – Not sure, the ticket price for most travelers is more important than possible changes in the schedule.
Actually I think that the concept of having a strong hub in RIX and smaller point-to-point bases close to it is very reliable from passenger point of view – if flights from the smaller bases are cancelled (due to any reasons), passengers can be easily routed trough the main hub. In such a case Ryanair or Wizz would just make a “full refund” (worth nothing) 2 weeks before the departure.
If I'm not mistaken, the methodology of air travel statistics is to count each travel segment individually, i.e. if you fly VNO-RIX-TLL return, it means BT carried and RIX served four passengers
VNO-RIX-TLL return make +4 for BT and +2 for RIX.

^^ It means +4 for RIX too.

As for comment of stranded passenger - excellent summary of what I was trying to say here for some time already. :) I'm reading blog of Simonas Bartkus, here most people think the same.

It's not evil plan with intent just to harm airports of Vilnius or Tallinn. It's plan to make more money. Weak neighbour airports with few direct routes = more flights through Riga and more money for airbaltic.

It looks as if someone just envies a bit..
Ok, part of what was mentioned might theoretically be sort of true, but indeed, that's how they try to make more profit, after they'll become a really big and significant company for European scales, then this strategy would be gone, it's amatter of time. ;)
But do you think that the lowerштп the quantity of routes and airlines both from VNO and TLL is a part of their plan? Now that's a complete nonsense! What would you say then about them coming on Finland's market? Also - to direct some routes through RIX? :nuts:

It looks as if someone just can't think logically a bit..
Less competition, bigger load factor with the help of collected passengers in airports close to their hub = more money. Quite simple. :) It looks like their image at this point is not important.

Distorting the truth does not help here:
Everyone was very happy when BT opened a base in LT, but they gradually closed practically all the routes once FlyLAL was declared bankrupt (if they would be interested in flying from other bases than RIX, they would have opened new routes instead of closing existing ones). Instead, VNO was left with two BT destinations: RIX and CPH.

- In autumn 2008 Lithuanian court announces that it arrests "airBaltic" properties in Lithuania due to unclear future financial situation of airBaltic, their losses and debts to VNO. Amount of claim - 57 mio EUR. According to them this is loss of Lithuanian side due to competition from airBaltic. This court decision is so weird and full with internal contradictions that nobody here has illusions - decision has been purchased.
- all of this is accompanied by proud announcements of general director of "flylal" about imminent domination of Vilnius airport and how they will force all passengers from Riga to go through Vilnius.
- airBaltic leaves Lithuania ASAP to avoid arrest of their property.
- flylal goes bancrupt in late autumn 2008.
- Vilnius remains without flights.

So - who is guilty? Most certainly it was not airBaltic's guilt - blame your corrupt court system for this.
I have not much illusion about our own court system, "honesty" of airBaltic etc. etc. But bring things straight. You yourselves with your hands f..ed up your airline market and nobody else is to blame.

Distorting the truth does not help here:
Exactly ;)

In autumn 2008 Lithuanian court announces that it arrests "airBaltic" properties in Lithuania due to unclear future financial situation of airBaltic, their losses and debts to VNO. Amount of claim - 57 mio EUR. According to them this is loss of Lithuanian side due to competition from airBaltic. This court decision is so weird and full with internal contradictions that nobody here has illusions - decision has been purchased.
What? So this is version from Latvian media? :) It's private company flylal who sued airbaltic and definately not for debts to VNO. :) Btw, one plane of flylal was not allowed to leave RIX because of their debts to RIX. Airbaltic had debts to VNO but their planes were never stopped here. As for court - I personally don't know if they were fair or corrupt. Do you? Why? Because media portrayed so?


- all of this is accompanied by proud announcements of general director of "flylal" about imminent domination of Vilnius airport and how they will force all passengers from Riga to go through Vilnius.
- airBaltic leaves Lithuania ASAP to avoid arrest of their property.
- flylal goes bancrupt in late autumn 2008.
- Vilnius remains without flights.
So private Lithuanian company is guilty for acts of airbaltic? But airbaltic closed routes AFTER flylal was gone. And now what? Why are they closing routes now? Airbaltic left Lithuania to avoid arrest of their property? But let me remind you that actually they never left Lithuania, such routes as Vilnius-Riga and few other were always here. They just closed most routes redirecting them through Riga. Plus they claimed that they are closing routes from Vilnius because of a very bad economic situation in Lithuania, not because of some courts. Btw, the final decisions in this case are still not known, so why airbaltic opened new routes this year again?

Distorting the truth does not help here:

Good idea. What about stopping doing that yourself then?


- In autumn 2008 Lithuanian court announces that it arrests "airBaltic" properties in Lithuania due to unclear future financial situation of airBaltic, their losses and debts to VNO.
Not true. It was "due to preferential treatment of AirBaltic by Riga Airport" and because, according to flyLAL "AirBaltic was receiving an 80% discount in RIX". There was no mention about "unclear financial situation" or "debts" to VNO. So it seems you just made it up.

Amount of claim - 57 mio EUR. According to them this is loss of Lithuanian side due to competition from airBaltic. This court decision is so weird and full with internal contradictions that nobody here has illusions - decision has been purchased.
One of the appeal court as well? It reaffirmed the decision of the lower instance court. You seem to know alot about the Lithuanian courts. Again, you have seemingly just made that up and, moreover, using it in a discussion which is somewhat irrelevant here.



- airBaltic leaves Lithuania ASAP to avoid arrest of their property.

Not true. AirBaltic never left VNO as has already been said by stranded passenger. Had it done what you have said (which, once again, you seemingly just have made up), it would have left completely and wouldn't have left any operational routes. The excuse of AB's leave was: "According to Vanags, the decision was made because of the economic crisis in Lithuania and its impact on the aviation business in Lithuania.". Again, like stranded passenger mentioned it sounds rather odd coming from a Latvian company. :|


So - who is guilty? Most certainly it was not airBaltic's guilt - blame your corrupt court system for this.

The guilt here is multiple. I wouldn't put it on AB - they are a bussiness entity and make money which is what they base their decisions on. I'd say it's due to the ineffective management of VNO.


Edit: sorry, dompzc was the first one to answer your points.

It is really puzzling why people choose to fly with the airline that they hate? There are alternatives -Ryanair from Kaunas and Estonian Air from Tallinn. Sad thing about Estonian Air is, of course, that they seem to like those "once a week" flights to their destinations. It may be ok for a holiday maker but certainly does not work for business meetings. Ryanair in Kaunas, on the other hand, offers more reliable service and cheap tickets but they dont fly to too many (interesting) destinations. Yes, I am airBaltic fan, despite the fact that they irritate sometimes with no answers to your emails and sometimes rude cabin stuff (but every airline has that) but at the end of the day, they offer me travel possibilities to soooo many destinations at reasonable prices... not cheap but reasonable. I certainly understand frustration when you have booked a flight from Vilnius to Amsterdam and it gets cancelled.... but hell, is is that burdensome that you have to change planes in Riga?? Ok guys fruitful discussion, I am off to Beirut... on airBaltic, of course :) Cheers

^^ Well, in many situations such as f.e. if it's your business trip and you will be late because of changed flights, it can become quite a problem for you. Otherwise, if you have plenty of time - not a big problem, just that you paid more for a flight through Riga (usually indirect flights are cheaper). Have a nice flight. :)

Good day for newcomers. Hello all!

- flylal goes bancrupt in late autumn 2008.
- Vilnius remains without flights.

I think that FlyLal went bankrupt in January 2009 and BT ended all other flights somewhere between March-April 2009.

As I can live with typical personal attacks in the forums then I still dare to say that current cuts out of Vilnius raise again doubts that other hubs are not part of the strategy but just now for creating necessary impression.

BT had previous knowledge and data about that market. Airport fees were lowered. They are proud of their low costs, prices and ability to find pax. They have earned „preliminary“ profit and from May starts flying high season. All the components to keep working in VNO at least through the summer. Yet, because of low demand most are taken offline. This sort of shows BT is not interested in every pax or cannot wait long enough for the pax to come. To add to this, then BT has not been afraid of competition in RIX. Being short of airplanes also does not sound logical, otherwise BT people planned schedules wrong.

Yeah that's right, AB disposed their oldest 737 (cn 24646/2138) (20 years) and guess who got it...
I wish luck to Estonians who will fly on this plane, you will need it. This plane was viewed as the worst in the whole AB fleet.

How can a person probably Latvian aviation insider be proud of the bad condition of an airplane that served BT for a long time?

Actually there are three older 737’s in Air Baltic fleet right now. Lufthansa has lots of 737 Classics from the 80s and these are fine enough that LH just postponed their retirement. Air Baltic started to use YL-BBA in 2004, says airfleets.net. Before only Braathens had flown this. Does it mean that during 6 years it was so badly maintained by BT? Some damage was not repaired correct and papers were forged? BT management earns the profits by saving from maintenance?

I think atleast we can thank Air Baltic for providing us so many new forumers. :D Welcome to everybody new around here :wave:


For Latvian forumers - criticism here isn't Estonian & Lithuanian envy against Air Baltic or smth :lol: Believe me,none of us has anything against Air Baltic becoming top airline in our region,but we do have something against how they treat passengers. It simply discussion pointing out Air Baltic's shortcomings - which should give us a healthy discussion about how & if things can be improved,but has instead given us Latvians vs. rest of the world flame war. If you don't believe me or other forumers,then feel free to come to Tallinn or Vilnius and start your air travel with Air Baltic,to whatever destination (except Riga ;)) from here and see how it goes. :)

Hm, maybe we should start more "fights" in other threads, f.e. Baltic states economy thread, Baltic seaports, etc.? Then we'll get even more new members. :yes:

Less competition, bigger load factor with the help of collected passengers in airports close to their hub = more money. Quite simple.

Not simple at all. Leaving market also means that someone will try to replace the dropped service by offering feeders to other hubs or by opening direct routes. (And actually BT can’t stop better service coming to VNO even if they are present – see the recent examples of Estonian starting AMS and SAS CPH). I see it virtually impossible for BT to harm any viable route out of VNO or TLL in long-run.

It means +4 for RIX too.
No, it is +2 for RIX. See Airports Council International (http://www.aci.aero/cda/aci_common/display/main/aci_content07_c.jsp?zn=aci&cp=1-5-54-55_666_2__) – they collect the official data from all over the World:
Total Passengers: total passengers enplaned and deplaned, passengers in transit counted once.

If you don't believe me or other forumers,then feel free to come to Tallinn or Vilnius and start your air travel with Air Baltic,to whatever destination (except Riga ;)) from here and see how it goes. :)

I don't believe you all. Absolutely seriously. Those people, who have any problems with AirBaltic should sue this company or at least go to the centre of protection of rights of customers or something like that instead of spreading rumors here.

Not simple at all. Leaving market also means that someone will try to replace the dropped service by offering feeders to other hubs or by opening direct routes. (And actually BT can’t stop better service coming to VNO even if they are present – see the recent examples of Estonian starting AMS and SAS CPH). I see it virtually impossible for BT to harm any viable route out of VNO or TLL in long-run.
Very simple. These days flight companies are having many troubles and they are not expanding as it used to be before. As soon as Vilnius announced about low taxes, airbaltic came fast and took all routes. Of course few other companies came too but only few. After some time airbaltic are closing routes and redirecting them through Riga but when/if they'll see any danger from some other companies they'll react fast and reopen the routes. Unless companies like ryanair will open many routes from Vilnius. Airbaltic is too weak to compete with such companies.

No, it is +2 for RIX. See Airports Council International (http://www.aci.aero/cda/aci_common/display/main/aci_content07_c.jsp?zn=aci&cp=1-5-54-55_666_2__) – they collect the official data from all over the World:
Too lazy to see what is collecting what. I was talking about official numbers of RIX itself. VNO-RIX-TLL and return is counted as 4: VNO-RIX, RIX-TLL, TLL-RIX, RIX-VNO. Check your facts first. Btw, even this thread contains article about such way of counting (which is absolutely normal) (if I remember correctly that article had interview with someone from Estonian Air).

I don't believe you all. Absolutely seriously.

Yup, we are just telling stories. Just because we are damn jealous :cheers:

Yes, I'm sure you all tell stories and not your own experiences. 100%. Ciao !

Yes, I'm sure you all tell stories

Let's make a competition who will come up with the better story about the Air Baltic ;)

God! I can't take it anymore!! I must admit!!! All this time I was actually lying just because I am sooo jealous! Sooo soo so! Jealous of the successfully grand company, the wings of Northern Europe that The AirBaltic Corporation is! :cry: Will you forgive me? Please!? :cry:

I don't believe you all. Absolutely seriously. Those people, who have any problems with AirBaltic should sue this company or at least go to the centre of protection of rights of customers or something like that instead of spreading rumors here.

Actually,people have done it and Air Baltic itself has been under supervision of Estonian customer rights protection agency (who asked Latvian counterpart to investigate Air Baltic's pricing policies) because of hidden ticket prices - travellers who bought tickets,were not informed of additional taxes added by both airports & Air Baltic (i.e. Air Baltic made the tickets look cheaper than they really were) And before I hear another beep about Estonian envy - such business behavior is against EU law.

News about it: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=et&sl=et&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fuudised.err.ee%2Findex.php%3F06178203

Some passengers complained to customer rights protection agency,because Air Baltic sold tickets to no-existing flights and didn't inform them about it (although they were finally willing to change tickets)

Source: http://www.tarbija24.ee/?id=264652

There's more,but I'm too tired to translate more news.

God! I can't take it anymore!! I must admit!!! All this time I was actually lying just because I am sooo jealous! Sooo soo so! Jealous of the successfully grand company, the wings of Northern Europe that The AirBaltic Corporation is! :cry: Will you forgive me? Please!? :cry:

Shame on you, you damn jealous liar! :bash:

You all are just jealous of our Estonian Air :smug: We have the best airline in the world :smug: Damn jealous Latvians & Lithuanians!


Lol, :jk:!

Estonian is to introduce new uniforms. And you can actually vote for the best collection here (http://www.estonian-air.ee/vormikonkurss/kollektsioonid.php). But is this the really best way to get more revenue?



Too lazy to see what is collecting what. I was talking about official numbers of RIX itself. VNO-RIX-TLL and return is counted as 4: VNO-RIX, RIX-TLL, TLL-RIX, RIX-VNO. Check your facts first. Btw, even this thread contains article about such way of counting (which is absolutely normal) (if I remember correctly that article had interview with someone from Estonian Air).

You are right; I mixed up transit/transfer pax.

There's more,but I'm too tired to translate more news.

But what's your personal experience ? People here speak about something they heard and not their experiences.
Do you want to hear what I've heard about Estonian Air ? :)

Do you want to hear what I've heard about Estonian Air ? :)

Go on, me - jealous lithuanian - would be very satisfied to learn how Estonian Air screwed up :cheers:

No, I won't tell you. :) You as Lithuanian just want your country to look better than 2 other Baltic States ! :laugh:

:cry:

But what's your personal experience ? People here speak about something they heard and not their experiences.

Can't say how personal this is,but my friend took a flight TLL-RIX-WAW with AB. According to him it was ok flight with poor onboard service. :dunno: Does that count?

Do you want to hear what I've heard about Estonian Air ? :)

I know. It's mediocre flight company (no sarcasm intended,I can personally criticize Estonian Air too),has few good sides,but also has plenty of flaws. Biggest problems are poor onboard service (food :no:) & flights get canceled etc. Feel free to add stuff.

Feel free to add stuff.

No, I don't want it anymore... Good night !

It will probably sound as a mocking in the recent context of this thread... But that's the news :lol:

airBaltic Awarded as Europe’s Largest Flag Carrier by New Routes

The Latvian airline airBaltic was chosen for anna.aero ANNIES Award as Europe's largest flag carrier by new routes. In Europe, CIS and the Middle East airBaltic operates 27 routes more in the summer season of 2010, compared to summer 2009.

Tero Taskila, Chief Commercial Officer of airBaltic: "airBaltic has grown to be the biggest airline in Nordic countries by the number of destinations served. We have worked hard to grow our network and transition has led to several international awards and profitable 2009. We have created the biggest network in Northern Europe with punctual service, low fares and good product."

anna.aero (Airline Network News & Analysis) ANNIE awards are based on science, statistics and evidence rather than merely opinions (and votes). The ANNIE award is based on a comparison of schedule data for August 2010 and August 2009 of airlines operating scheduled flights.

airBaltic serves 80 destinations from its home base in Riga, Latvia. From every one of these, airBaltic offers convenient connections via North Hub Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, CIS and the Middle East.

Actually,people have done it and Air Baltic itself has been under supervision of Estonian customer rights protection agency (who asked Latvian counterpart to investigate Air Baltic's pricing policies) because of hidden ticket prices - travellers who bought tickets,were not informed of additional taxes added by both airports & Air Baltic (i.e. Air Baltic made the tickets look cheaper than they really were) And before I hear another beep about Estonian envy - such business behavior is against EU law.

News about it: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=et&sl=et&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fuudised.err.ee%2Findex.php%3F06178203

Some passengers complained to customer rights protection agency,because Air Baltic sold tickets to no-existing flights and didn't inform them about it (although they were finally willing to change tickets)

Source: http://www.tarbija24.ee/?id=264652

There's more,but I'm too tired to translate more news.

I think those "hidden" taxes are still the case. Or at least their pricing is very annoying.

They sometimes show discount tickets with a price of €9, but then it adds up to €60 with taxes...

On that matter, Ryanair's pricing policy is even much more clear:

Prices:

0.01 = 0.01
1 = 1
5 = 5
8 = 8
10 = 10
12,99 = 15
15 = 40

Kind of simplified, but usually if they show special offers you can really fly for that price. With AirBaltic you pay up till 7 times more than the advertised price..

But my main problem is indeed that they route a lot of flights through RIX, which makes it a timeconsuming airline for Lithuanians and Estonians.

And that's the main point that those people are trying to make here. They are afraid that AirBaltic will become the Baltic airline, that there will be almost no competition and that you can only fly to anywhere with a timeconsuming transfer in Riga..

And their strategy sadly works. Especially Tallinn airport is focusing very much on AirBaltic, instead of attracting more airlines that can offer direct flights to lots of destinations and creating more jobs in Tallinn airport.

I have also never flown AirBaltic, since there is no advantage over Ryanair for me (I travel from Belgium to Estonia every month, always with Ryanair to Riga and then Eurolines to Tallinn).

I would love to support Estonian Air, since their prices are pretty low, but still not low enough for a student :). Also, their flight from Brussels to Tallinn arrives at 00:40 in Tallinn or something..

airBaltic offers convenient connections via North Hub Riga to its network spanning
I bet these typical words were invented by geniuses of PR department of The Great AirBaltic Corporation. Reminds me a bit of "...conveniently direct flights through Slesograd from Tallinn, Vilnius, Helsinki and other towns..." and "hubby Slesograd". :) Boy I am jealous!

Oh, good news, guys, don't you find? j/k :)
But whatever AB is being criticised, it still is able to open and serve many routes, isn't this obvious that this company can make it better that the neighbouring ones? Just leave as it is, as it can be called already a big company, no wonder in some case there appears a poor service because it's not so easy for them to keep an eye on everything.
How about showing VNO statics of the previous month? I doubt things go bad there, must be improving. Maybe also Kaunas airport would boast with its growth thanks to Ryanair?

Yeah,would like to know VNO statistics too (I want to be jealous over how well they are doing :D)

Anyway,here's Tallinn's statistics (May 2010,comparing to May 2009)
Passengers: 124 705 (+8,2%,finally good numbers :cheers:)
Number of flights: 3169 (+12,2%)
Cargo: 560 tons (-70,7%)

Wtf is going on with our cargo? First two months in this year had 2000 tons of cargo and then it suddenly dropped to 500-600 tons :ohno:

Wtf is going on with our cargo?

I bet u they're all scared of crashin into ulemiste lake after that polish plane had a swim in there! Anyway, the port cargo figures are on the rise so it all balances out!

^^ Good news for Tallinn, I guess you'll overtake VNO in growth later this year and we'll be very very jealous. ;)

VNO statistics: 134 019 +19%

VNO growth looks quite ok, but only because of the fact that situation in VNO last year was very very bad. Closed routes of airbaltic will affect numbers from this month I guess but there will still be growth (once again, because of very bad situation last year).

As for Kaunas we don't have numbers yet, but predicted growth is some +50%.

As for Kaunas we don't have numbers yet, but predicted growth is some +50%.

If Ryanair base is opened and 9 new routes also, then the growth should be even faster. Ryanair promised some million passengers more from Kaunas in this year - then the growth should be some +150%...

How can a person be proud of the bad condition of an airplane that served BT for a long time?


"Proud"? WTF? I am just pointing on questionable quality standards of Estonian air. They are now picking up even "scrap metal". It's EA whose maintenance quality control should be questioned here. Given the regular technical mishaps on their other planes I am afraid that in the worst case scenario one of their planes can fall out of the skies at any moment.

^^ Good news for Tallinn, I guess you'll overtake VNO in growth later this year and we'll be very very jealous. ;)


So now your blind hate and envy will also be directed towards Estonians?

Here man,have a :chill:. Air Baltic flame war died out yesterday. Move along people,nothing to see here ;)

Here man,have a :chill:. Air Baltic flame war died out yesterday. Move along people,nothing to see here ;)

haha, nice pill. :D

So now your blind hate and envy will also be directed towards Estonians?
Yep, my blind dark cruel angry envious envy and hate will be directedly directed towards poor Estonians now too. :(

Yesterday facebook group was created for those who suffered from services of airbaltic or just don't like their services/actions. Short link: http://tiny.cc/airbolik (though it's in Lithuanian). Everyone are invited to join. :)

You are pathetic, so now you are are even creating anti AB hate sites. The amount of your jealousy is astounding to say the least.

AN-124-100 largest serial produced cargo plane in the world visits RIX again.

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/7924/bild9998s.jpg

Photo byBTSKY (http://www.aviofoto.lv/?c=bilde&id=7470)

AN-124-100 largest serial produced cargo plane in the world visits RIX again.

Why?

Kaunas airport:

May: 72K passangers. +100% growth.
KUN expects 700K passangers this year.

So now your blind hate and envy will also be directed towards Estonians?

You're reading way too much into it, man...

You are pathetic, so now you are are even creating even anti AB hate sites. The amount of your jealousy is astounding to say the least.
No, I'm not creating anything, I've just posted a link. Despite that I invite you to join that group of pathetically jealous liars. ;)

Unless you start you day with googling "airbaltic sux", you are one of co-author of this page. How else would you know about some random page generated only yesterday.

There is no sense in this discussion, because
http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/10/9/128680722737282665.jpg

- - -
- before yesterday airBaltic started to fly Riga - Beirut and Riga - Madrid. Today they started Riga - Visby.
- - -
- increase of equity capital of "airBaltic" per 43 mio EUR has been successful - both state and private owners kept their promises. Their preliminary assessment shows that profit last year was smth. like 20 mio EUR.
- due to this "airBaltic" was in a position to announce to airline industry a wish to take 1.4 billion EUR loan for purchase of new fleet - 30 brand new airplanes. The choice is between "Airbus" and "Boeing" and over the last months Riga is visited by high officials of "Boeing" and "Airbus". The final decision will be announced circa October this year.

AN-124-100 largest serial produced cargo plane in the world visits RIX again.


Photo byBTSKY (http://www.aviofoto.lv/?c=bilde&id=7470)

Isn't it meant to be An-225? An-124 is the smaller and older "cousin" of An-225. Or does An-225 not count as "serial production"?

Gatis & ABC...you just can't stop,can you ;) P.S. - I'm so very friggin' jealous now.

Finally good news about Estonian Air:
Government has agreed with SAS over share sale and is acquiring 90% of Estonian Air :cheers:

According to this deal in next four years government pays back 115,5 million EEK loan taken from SAS,after that government has option to get those 10% shares still owned by SAS. It's uncertain what will happen to Cresco,small shareholder in Estonian Air,but it's probably abandoning it's ownership. Government is increasing it's financial involvement by 280 million EEK, which will be used for buying new,economical airplanes (i.e. finally will be paid for those three Bombadier CRJ900's currently standing in US) :cheers: And even better news - there will be new Estonian Air board of directors! :banana:

Until now Estonian Air ownership was: SAS 49%,Estonian government 34% and Cresco investment bank 17%.

Source: http://ap3.ee/article/2010/6/4/riik-saab-estonian-airi-400-miljoni-krooniga-sas-uut-raha-ei-lisa

:banana:

Kaunas airport:

May: 72K passangers. +100% growth.


That's what I'm talkin' about :okay:

Btw, the director of KUN said "There can even be no talks about quiting of any routes". Way to go KUN.

Great news from Estonia, that was also announced here. So, will there be started a new strategy since now? As this happened can there be a guarantee that EA would not go bankrupt? Although, if they survived the previous years, I doubt there would appear more serious tasks..!

Yeah,it's definitely a turning point for Estonian Air. They were quite happy about results of VNO-AMS line (in May it had 4830 passengers,flights fill-up was 89,2%),so it might encourage them to open new lines from Tallinn and also in other countries once they finally receive new planes. Without SAS EA might face a lot more stable future (in recent years SAS kinda lost interest of developing EA)

I Or does An-225 not count as "serial production"?

Only one An-225 was ever built, so it should be obvious that An-225 is not serial produced :|

there will be new Estonian Air board of directors! :banana:



Can you give us list of names? What future do they see for EA, any interviews?

Why?

Some military cargo for upcoming large scale NATO exercise in Courland.

Can you give us list of names? What future do they see for EA, any interviews?

Not yet. They select the new board during shareholders meeting on 15th June.

More stuff about Estonian Air sale:

Cresco: government & SAS pushed Cresco out of Estonian Air.

Cresco CEO Olev Schults claims both Estonian government & SAS used dirty tactics and pushed Cresco out of owners ring,without paying them a single cent for takeover. Previously Cresco had claimed that it leaves if Estonian government should become a major shareholder in Estonian Air.

Source: http://www.epl.ee/artikkel/577981

Minister Parts sheds some light on Estonian Air future plans

Juhan Parts,minister of economic affairs & communications,said that he doesn't rule out option of putting Estonian Air on stock exchange,but this won't happen within next three years. Currently main aim is to make Estonian Air profitable and effective again. Because of this government decided to become a major shareholder. Currently both Estonian government & SAS valued EA shares to be worth 0 EEK. Minister said without additional finances,of what neither SAS or Cresco were willing to provide, Estonian Air would not have been able to continue soon (i.e. without government involvement Estonian Air would have gone bankrupt soon) He also implied that current CEO & board of directors previous actions have not been tolerated and that CEO Andrus Aljas has so far kept his job only because of SAS demands.

Speaking of future plans,he said that Estonian Air must improve it's position on Estonian market and must also increase it's direct flight lines,up to 30 direct lines from Estonia.
Source: http://ap3.ee/article/2010/6/4/parts-ei-valista-estonian-airi-borsile-viimist

They already have 27 destinations and only 7 planes. What is point in so many destinations if they are only able to fly twice per week to the most of them. EA needs more planes!

I wonder if there's any info about the recently launched Riga-Belgrade line?

From what I've read on this end, so far, its doing better than most people here expected. Apparently, quite a few Russians are using this route.

Here's a recent photo of an airBaltic aircraft at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla airport - you can catch a glimpse of the infamous Genex tower on the left:D

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/8503/airbaltic1.jpg (http://img35.imageshack.us/i/airbaltic1.jpg/)

An article by Baltic review about Kaunas Airport


Kaunas Airport Becomes a Major Link

KAUNAS — Ryanair, the largest economy flights airline in Europe, opened an airbase at Kaunas airport last Tuesday May 4, 2010, making Kaunas airport Ryanair’s main airport in Central Europe.

From now Ryanair will have more than 120 flights a week from Kaunas to 18 destinations in Europe, carrying more than a million passengers during 2010.

Ryanair has its head office at Dublin Airport, Ireland with primary operational bases at Dublin Airport and London Stansted Airport. Ryanair operates over 230 Boeing 737-800 aircraft on over 1,100 routes across Europe and Morocco from over 41 bases.


Lithuania’s Kaunas airport at Karmėlava was modernised not so long ago and its selection as Ryanair’s major airport in Central Europe will make it an important bridge between Lithuania and Europe. Many European airports were vying to be selected by Ryanair. At the end of last year Ryanair was still negotiating with four European airports and Kaunas airport emerged as the winner. Ryanair’s investment in Kaunas approaches $US 140 million and will create about a thousand jobs.


I wonder where all this is going to go. If KUN turns to be a success (and there are hardly any reasons not to) who knows if it won't climb higher up to 3rd or 2nd position over the next few years. At the present the capacity of KUN pasenger terminal is short of 1 million so I guess an expansion should be on the agenda for the near future.

All right, so at least one line would not be closed down and we would be having a chance to get to the Balkans for quiet a while. If only AB would have been thinking about some long-run destinations, it would definately had much more profit than by opening new and closing them soon, for only the longer you stay, the more respect (what means PROFIT) you get, that's their needed startegy IMO.

Right,now here's Estonian Air schedule for putting Bombardier's in use - first plane arrives in autumn and will be used from winter on Kiev,Moscow,Brussels & Copenhagen lines. Second one should also arrive in this year,but third plane is probably received in next year. Estonian Air also announced that it will make changes to it's service on board (:applause:)

One of those planes currently waiting in US:
http://images2.jetphotos.net/img/2/4/2/2/82132_1268948224.jpg

_______________________________________

WindJet opens weekly flight line for this summer between Tallinn,Estonia & Forli,Italy. Flights take place every Wednesday until 1st September.

airBaltic tickets now are on sale in 700 kiosks around whole Finland.
- - -
Today airBaltic starts flying Riga - Tehran. They will fly three times per week. Thus there are five destinations from Riga to Near East - Beirut, Amman, Telaviv, Dubai and Tehran.

What you are talking about? Tehran plans were scraped long time ago due to inability do paperworks (or to be clear - pressure from US embassy). Belavia is trying to use the situation and will launch Stockholm-Minsk and Minsk-Tehran in August.

Yep, LETA just half an hour ago recalled these news. No Riga-Tehran.
This guy came and said:
http://justgetthere.us/blog/uploads/war-on-terror-uncle-sam.jpg
and he was very convincing to our government officials.