✈ Baltic airports - how they do?

[Sanchous]

airBaltic announced one more new route: Riga-Balton 1x weekly on Saturdays, a/c type - Q400.
This one looks to be useless.

[lucky1]

What's Balton?

[Sanchous]

Sorry, type error - Balaton.

[Pansori]

Does Airbaltic also fly to Portugl?

[El Dee]

Originally Posted by Sanchous

airBaltic announced one more new route: Riga-Balton 1x weekly on Saturdays, a/c type - Q400.
This one looks to be useless.

They fly to Budapest already, don't they?

[bebrs12]

They do fly to Budapest. As I could find in Hungarian press the airport signed "a 3-year contract for one weekly flight in summer season" that gives a clue that the route may be supported by Hungarian side.

[ABC LV]

AirBaltic and the Hévíz-Balaton Airport Ltd. signed a three-year agreement


AirBaltic and the Hévíz-Balaton Airport Ltd. signed a three-year agreement, under which direct air link is created between Riga International Airport and Hévíz-Balaton Airport. With its professional work, primarily through its network of foreign representation the Hungarian Tourism Plc. helps make the new flight successful. This new flight opens up new markets for the whole Balaton region. According to the plans the first plane lands on 4th May 2013 initally with 76 seats on board. The weekly flights from May to October establish a fast connection between the Northern European countries and the Western Hungarian spa towns and Lake Balaton.
The Riga International Airport is an important transport station (so called hub) for Northern European passengers. AirBaltic carries 3,300,000 passengers a year to more than 50 destinations. It can offer a new holiday and spa destination primarily for its Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish passengers with the connection to Hévíz-Balaton Airport. According to the previous market research from the rigorous Scandinavian areas there is great interest in the thermal baths during spring and autumn and in Lake Balaton during the summer season. The flight offers a convenient connection also from Russia.
Papp Gábor – the mayor of Hévíz– said, that the Hévíz-Balaton Airport Ltd., which is 100 % local government owned, is prepared for the flights of AirBaltic. To ensure the stable operation of the airport it is essential to increase the number of flights. To do so, the first successfully concluded agreement resulted in the Riga – Hévíz/Balaton flight. Reaching new clientele gives an opportunity to extend the composition of international visitors in the region. A comprehensive marketing campaign is prepared for it. Hévíz and in a wider sense the Western Hungarian spa towns will be introduced as health tourism destinations in the Northern European market in close cooperation with the Hungarian Tourism Plc. In connection with the flight the airport wants to intensify further the cooperation in the region initiating several towns and businesses in order to strengthen the common marketing tasks.

http://www.hevizairport.com/en/news/...balaton-flight

[Sanchous]

One more summer vacation destination will be announced by BT very soon.

[Sanchous]

And the new destination is... Larnaca, x1 weekly on Saturdays, 737.
And one more to come, tomorrow, I guess.

[LosBanditos]

airBaltic to launch Riga-Larnaca flight On 6 April, 2013
Alla Petrova, BC, Riga, 12.12.2012.

Latvian airline airBaltic will launch a new route from Riga to the tourist resort of Larnaca, Cyprus. The new route of airBaltic will offer convenient travel between the two airports, and beyond to destinations in the Baltics, Scandinavia, Russia, and the CIS, informs BC vice president of corporate communications at airBaltic Janis Vanags.

Michael Grimme, Chief Commercial Officer of airBaltic: “As part of airBaltic ReShape business plan we have been concentrating on high-demand routes and added frequencies to 12 destinations in Europe and the CIS already for this winter. At the same time we have decreased flying on low-demand routes, which makes aircraft available for other new routes. In total, we are planning to open six new routes for the next summer, and we are delighted to announce Larnaca as our new summer destination.”

Destination served (from North Hub Riga)

1 flight weekly, Saturday

Price from LVL 59 /85 EUR
* Lowest fare, including taxes, fees and service charges, on www.airBaltic.com, subject to availability


airBaltic will fly from Riga to Larnaca once a week on Saturdays, while the return flight from Larnaca to Riga will be operated on early Sunday mornings to secure convenient connections. Passengers will board a Boeing 737 aircraft for a flight that will last for 3 hours and 50 minutes. One-way ticket prices will start at LVL 59 (EUR 85), including airport fees and transaction costs.


airBaltic serves 60 destinations from its home base in Riga, Latvia. airBaltic offers convenient connections via North Hub Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, CIS and the Middle East.

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http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/goo...ess/?doc=67351

[LosBanditos]

Estonian Air carried 834,070 passengers in 11 months

Juhan Tere, BC, Tallinn, 11.12.2012.



In the first eleven months of the year 2012, Estonia's national airline Estonian Air carried altogether 834,070 passengers, out of whom 832,510 traveled on regular flights, the company said in a statement.


The load factor of Estonian Air regular flights was 71.3%, informs LETA.

In November, Estonian Air carried 67,347 passengers, all on regular flights.

In the first eleven months Estonian Air operated 18,307 flights, which is 68.9% more than during the same period last year. In November, the airline operated 1558 flights, which is 55.8% more than during the same period last year.

In the first eleven months the regularity of Estonian Air flights was 98.7% and the 15-minute punctuality was 84.3%. In November, the regularity and punctuality were 97.3% and 87.1% respectively.


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http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/transport/?doc=67299

[LosBanditos]

Estonian Air still has no solution for excess planes

Juhan Tere, BC, Tallinn, 12.12.2012.

The new manager of Estonian state-owned carrier Estonian Air, Jan Palmér, was supposed to compile a plan on what to do with excess planes of the company by the first week of December 2012, but now that has been postponed till next year, LETA/Postimees Online reports.



In an interview in November, Palmér noted that the amount of money the state would have to invest in the company depends on the fate of the planes. The action plan on the plans was to be completed by last week.

Estonian Air PR manager Ilona Eskelinen said on Tuesday that there isn’t any action plan yet. "It is not yet known how and at what conditions we can take our fleet to the desired size. Negotiations are under way," she said.

The company has ten planes but it only needs five for the new strategy of flying only to its traditional destinations. Eskelinen said that the decisions regarding the fate of the planes will be postponed till next year.

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http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/transport/?doc=67320

[Sanchous]

Riga-Rijeka (Croatia), x1 weekly, on Thursdays, 737 by BT.
One more sunny destination will come tomorrow.

[lucky1]

These are some weird destinations (not as weird as Kajaani, of course). Surely they are decent places for holidays, but I doubt there is going to be enough demand for even 1x weekly. Unless they are specifically cooperating with some travel agency. Oh well, I guess they are just trying them out since they can always cancel these routes.

Anyway, at least AB is showing some enthusiasm, which can not be said about Estonian flag-carrier (about to declare bankruptcy) or Lithuanian flag-carrier (doen't even exist).

[Sanchous]

They looks to be test flights, BT is trying to find it's niche. I think that they will evaluate profitability of destinations and leave only the profitable ones.
I believe that Larnaca will have success and even frequencies may be increased as a lot of Latvians lives there, lot of Russians have properties on Cyprus and Cyprus still is a nice place for vacation.
The more weird, but still sunny destination will be announced tomorrow.

[El Dee]

Originally Posted by Sanchous

They looks to be test flights, BT is trying to find it's niche. I think that they will evaluate profitability of destinations and leave only the profitable ones.
I believe that Larnaca will have success and even frequencies may be increased as a lot of Latvians lives there, lot of Russians have properties on Cyprus and Cyprus still is a nice place for vacation.
The more weird, but still sunny destination will be announced tomorrow.

Curious about the other destinations. Larnaca doesn't seem weird at all, although it's not my favourite destination. Went there last year, and met there suprisingly enough some Lithuanian, but I don't like it. But might be interesting. Let's see what the other destinations will be.
In my opinion they should fly more on thursday/fridays and sundays to cities like Copenhagen, London, Budapest etc. These cities, and Riga also, are popular destinations for a citytrip.

[Sanchous]

The destination of today: Olbia (Sardinia, Italy), max x2 weekly, 737, BT.
Guess which destination will be announced tomorrow? =)

[El Dee]

A destination like Madrid would make sense in my opinion.

[Sanchous]

Riga-Malta, x1 weekly, 737, BT.

UTair increases frequency on RIX-VKO route to x2 daily. One flight on 737, other on CRJ200.

[LosBanditos]

17/12/2012
WIZZ AIR ADDS 2 NEW ROUTES

2 NEW LOW-FARE ROUTES FROM BERGEN TO POZNAN AND RIGA

Wizz Air, the largest low-cost, low-fare airline in Central and Eastern Europe, today announced two new routes from Bergen to Poznan in Poland and Riga in Latvia. These two routes will initially operate two days per week each and start operating in spring 2013.

Wizz Air’s latest growth in Norway will increase yearly passenger traffic at Bergen Airport to 180,000 passengers on a total of 4 Wizz Air routes. The airline expects its low fares and the growing popularity of Poland to stimulate leisure traffic from Norway while the Latvian capital city is set to conquer bi-directional tourists as well as business travellers. Wizz Air now connects Bergen to Gdansk, Poznan, Riga and Vilnius, on fares starting from just kr251. The 2 new routes announced today are now on sale at wizzair.com.

2 New Bergen Routes From Spring 2013:

Fares from Poznan - Wednesday, Sunday
From 31st March

Riga - Monday, Friday
From 1st April


Daniel de Carvalho, Corporate Communications Manager at Wizz Air, said: “Wizz Air is very pleased to announce more of its low-fare services from Bergen in a bid to carry more Norwegian passengers to the Baltic and Central Europe. The rustic country style city of Poznan, and Riga, the up and coming favorite of clubbers and night owls, can now be accessed on direct low-fare flights for the very first time. We encourage Norwegian consumers to discover Wizz Air’s great service and fly on one of our 39 brand new Airbus A320 aircraft. This week’s lowest fares from Bergen are available for booking from just kr251 and we urge passengers to book quickly on wizzair.com.”

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http://wizzair.com/en-GB/about_us/news/wizen141

Not official - Rigas route plane based from Gdansk