Latvian flag carrier airBaltic will introduce new flights to Belgrade, Split, Dubrovnik and Tivat during the 2023 summer season as part of a major network expansion which includes eighteen routes. The airline will commence two weekly flights from Riga to Belgrade on May 16, marking its return to the Serbian capital after twelve years. It initially maintained flights between the two cities from 2009 until 2011 but discontinued operations along with several other destinations as the carrier struggled with financial problems and a fleet shortage at the time. airBaltic's CEO, Martin Gauss, recently told EX-YU Aviation News, "We are always discussing Belgrade. It is on the list of routes we are looking at launching and if it makes sense, out of all the routes that we could fly to, we would definitely go there. Belgrade is extremely interesting to us, and the route has potential”. airBaltic and Air Serbia are codeshare partners and are likely to expand their partnership next year.
The airline will grow its presence in Croatia with the introduction of flights from Tallinn to Split and Dubrovnik from May 1 and May 2 respectively. Both routes will be maintained twice per week. They will complement the carrier’s existing seasonal operations from Riga to Split, Dubrovnik and Rijeka, as well as from Vilnius to Dubrovnik. Explaining the airline’s absence from Zagreb, Mr Gauss said, "There is good connectivity from Zagreb to other markets with Croatia Airlines. You are set up well in that region and linked with Lufthansa hubs of Munich and Vienna. If there was no connectivity, I'm sure we could do something more on the Croatian market, but we are focusing on expanding first where we can see that we can fill aircraft the easiest, as all airlines do".
airBaltic will enter the Montenegrin market on May 4 with a two weekly rotation between Riga and Tivat. The airline has never served Montenegro in the past. All destinations will be operated by the 145-seat Airbus A220 aircraft, which is the only type in the airline’s fleet. “This is the largest number of new routes in a single season we have ever seen at airBaltic. We continue to be committed to our home cities in the Baltics and improving connectivity to and from the region. We are glad to expand airBaltic’s offering for the next summer season both with new route additions and increased flight frequencies on our existing leisure and city break routes”, Mr Gauss concluded.
| Route | Launch date |
|---|---|
| Tallinn - Split | MAY 1 |
| Tallinn - Dubrovnik | MAY 2 |
| Riga - Tivat | MAY 4 |
| Riga - Belgrade | MAY 16 |
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Excellent news. Wish them good luck.
ReplyDeleteWhat is their service like? LCC style?
ReplyDeleteLcc style
DeleteBut they are quite good, "upscale lcc" :)
DeleteSomething between an LCC and a legacy.
DeleteDecent business class, pay on board in economy.
DeleteBig difference vs. LCC concerning AirBaltic is proper Business Class service and real connecting flight tickets ( including several code share agreements )
DeleteVINCI has done well in attracting European legacies to BEG. Air France, Lux Air, KLM and now airBaltic. I'm sure there will be more in the future.
ReplyDeleteBA,SAS,Brussels Airlines,Sky Express (they will launch Sofia,maybe and BEG;)),Gulf Air,flynas,Jazeera,Finnair
DeleteThis is my dream;)
And Ryanair;))) one day
DeleteBringing Ryanair is at least easy. Just low your taxes and they will come, but fortunately BEG is not working on that way.
DeleteYes, then they become a weekend base.
DeletePity they are not coming back to Ohrid...
ReplyDeleteMaybe a few charters a year to Ohrid are possible
DeleteTheir fares to BEG are rather good. 120 EUR return fare.
ReplyDeleteThey have skipped SKP again. It would've made sense to include it
ReplyDeleteNot sure there is demand from Skopje to the Baltics, especially since SKP is connected even to the village of Vaxjo in Scandinavia so the region is well covered.
DeleteWhat I could see eventually happening is summer seasonal flights to Ohrid
LJU misses out again :(
ReplyDeleteThe explanation he gave about ZAG probably applies to LJU as well. It is well connected with Lufthansa hubs.
DeleteBut BEG, SPU and DBV are all well connected to LH hubs so I don't buy it.
Delete"we are focusing on expanding first where we can see that we can fill aircraft the easiest, as all airlines do".
DeleteBT should look at ZAG, even if it is well connected to Lufthansa hubs. There is a need for more competition here especially to Northern Europe.
DeleteI don't get it. Are they somehow linked to Lufthansa for their explanation to be that they don't want to fly somewhere because of the city's good LH connectivity?
DeleteThey do cooperate closely with the Lufthansa Group member airlines.
DeleteOut of the 18 destinations, they very cleverly use the A220 and included interesting additions such as Bilbao and Málaga in Spain. As well as Baku and Yerevan.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, they chose Burgas and not Sofia. And also, included Hanover and Porto. The A220 is just the perfect plane for those destinations. Riga is indeed becoming a serious hub.
It is logical for them to choose Burgas, the number of Latvian tourists is increasing and it is normal that they are regular.
DeleteUntil now there were charters to Burgas. Sofia has LOT.
In Bulgaria, more and more tourists come individually, as in Croatia
DeleteTrue dat. The number of Polish destinations in Burgas was crazy this year. And yes, forgot about the Latvians.
DeleteThis year I was in Sozopol, the southern Black Sea. It was full of Poles and Czechs.
DeleteMy flight was WAW-BOJ W6 A321 full to the top.
Yep. Sozopol, Nessebar, Sunny Beach for the younger crowd. The Atanaskovo lake with flamingos. Burgas region has nicer and warmer beaches and sand.
DeleteYou forgot Smartwings that used to have up to 4 daily flights from Prague.
If BT were allowed to operate to Russia, then we could've seen more flights to Serbia, Croatia and Bulgaria in summer. Stupid and useless war where we are all suffering for nothing but the Greek of the elite...
Greed not Greek. Typo
DeleteMix of 735s and Q400s
ReplyDeleteWonder if BEG will be seasonal or year round? For the rest I'm sure it's seasonal since they are leisure routes.
ReplyDeleteIt will likely depend on the performance during the summer.
DeleteI would like if in winter they switched from Tivat to Podgorica :)
DeleteYeah, Riga-Podgorica in November would be guaranteed success lol
DeleteWith all due respect, who is going to fly between Belgrade and Riga?
ReplyDeleteI think they will rely on transfers to Scandinavia. I don't think there is a huge P2P market between BEG and RIX.
DeleteThe Serbian statistic office haven't included Latvia in their report on tourist arrivals. The same goes for the Latvian statistic office who haven't included Serbian arrivals in their report. So demand between the 2 countries is very little.
DeleteObviously airBaltic thinks it can be successful.
DeleteEither way, Riga is quite beautiful and looks like a German town but locals are much friendlier in Estonia.
DeleteThis is not about traffic between Riga & Belgrade only, key is in connection network from both cities.
DeleteThe countries are not well known to eachother, but both are very interesting to explore, Serbia to Latvians, Latvia to Serbians. Perfect city break destinations.
DeleteI think it's not only about Latvia but rather the entire Baltic region. They have very good connections to TLL and VNO. With fares around 160€, which is quite reasonable.
DeleteI would say Scandinavia (Serbian diaspora) and former CIS is where the demand would come from.
DeleteYou would all be surprised to know that airBaltic has quite a few Serbian pilots :D
DeleteBack in the days I flew via Riga (to Tbilisi, Tashkent and Dushanbe) with airBaltic. there was no p2p basically, everything was transfer. But the planes have been full. And I remember that one flight from BEG to RIX was actually operated by Trade Air, the other ones were with q400 or 737 if I not mistaken.
DeletePeople who want to explore other cultures and cousine. People like me who traveled during "pandemic" unvaccinated
DeleteI had to fly for Business reason from TLL to BEG already twice this year ... Options were definitly not easly ( long connecting time at FRA + usage of strange terminal C or go via ZRH) . Prices were also VERY high ! Therefore, I will be very happy to use this new route via RIX in the future . Current prices visible on BT website are super competitive. We will see how fast they will fill the planes. Btw Belgrade as touristic destination for a city trip is also the must : lot of stuff to visit and delicious food :-D
DeletePositively surprised :)
ReplyDeleteGood for connections to Scandinavia
ReplyDeleteWonder if it will impact LOT in any way. They carry a lot of connecting pax from the region to the Baltics.
DeleteYes, this is really great news. Baltic was somehow "grey spot on the map" for Belgrade, limited options of connecting flights and a bit pricey, too.
ReplyDeleteI wish this was introduced while I was flying there regularly :)
Montenegro keeps winning!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure JU will codeshare on Belgrade-Riga
ReplyDeleteWithout doubt. They already have a wide codeshare agreement.
DeleteNice addition!
ReplyDeleteDo airBaltic and Croatia Airlines codeshare?
ReplyDeleteNo
DeleteBut as such as a interline. You can book at their websites connections through european hubs to Zagreb etc
Delete^ Good to know. Thanks
DeleteBack when they used to fly to Belgrade 10+ years ago they had very reasonable prices, especially for connections to Russia. Obviously they can't count on those anymore.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, back then they flew 3 times per week to BEG and then increased it to 4 the following year.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised they don't fly more to ex-Yu and haven't considered Zagreb or Ljubljana too.
ReplyDeleteActually it was mostly flown by F100 and Q400. When it was flown by Q400 flight was 3 hours.
ReplyDeleteThey were in an absolute mess when they ended BEG and I was always hoping they would come back. They are in a much better position now. Nice to see them coming back.
ReplyDeleteThings have certainly changed. Last time they were flying to Belgrade they were interested in buying Jat. Baltic Aviation Systems, which is a part owner air Baltic was the only airline to purchase the tender documentation.
DeleteSeems like it was a hundred years ago. Completely forgot about that.
DeleteGood news
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy to see that Air Baltic has a total number of planes almost compared to both JU and OU combined. And the country is even smaller than both countries in every aspect...
ReplyDeleteBut this summer they had less passengers than JU.
DeleteDidn't they wet-lease or lease their equipment to someone during the summer?
DeleteWho can you expect to carry with such a low frequency. Only very cheap tourist traffic for whom day of operations is not so important. So how much money can you charge? Not a lot. Business traffic will still fly via hubs like VIE, WAW, MUC and FRA.
ReplyDeleteEven for business passengers it is good to have additional options - at least they can use it in one direction and some other connection in opposite direction. Hopefully, number of flights will grow...
DeleteThis is the difference with hybrid /full fare carriers and LCC/ULCC.
DeleteBT, although with 2 pw, can charge more and be an attractive option for business travelers as they have a decent amount of codeshare and interline partners. LCC/ULCC's dont have this as part of their business model, its their prices and dense aircraft configurations where they're competitive in enticing those flexible to travel with them.
Days when BT are not operating, traffic would be sent via other partner hubs such as VIE on BT tickets, which they currently do. This in effect gives them between 1-3 flights a day between BEG and RIX. The direct flights would be additions to what they have on offer plus allow them to offer seats on flights via RIX.
Number of frequencies is not necessarily related to cheap tourists, but to the volume of traffic. Of course it is not possible to have daily flights between two small countries such as Latvia or Croatia unless there is huge business activity and/or diaspora involved. Two frequencies in summer are good enough for leisure travelers to start with, which is exactly what this airline is doing in the case of Croatia. Btw, you have the same number of frequencies (2 or 3) between major urban areas in Spain (each of them greater than Latvia or Croatia) on one side and one of the airports on Canary Islands on another side (the region with greater number of overnight stays than entire Croatia)
DeleteWasn't there an article on here about them looking at ZAG? What happened?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I am wrong, but I believe Ryanair /Lauda will launch Riga and/or Vilnius from ZAG soon, and they don't feel like competing with FR
DeleteFantastic development. This is a very decent airline, their onboard product is really good and affordable. I have recently flown CPH-RIX and was really impressed with different aspects of their offering. RIX airport is also very convenient for transfers. Lastly, the city itself is a hidden gem for people in the Balkans. Very interesting in terms of history and architecture, followed by more than decent tourism infrastructure, proximity to Estonia and Lithuania and very affordable pricing across categories of products and services. Finally, their mostly brand new A220 are perfect choice for routes to ex-YU.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteYou are lucky, since you didn't use their OLD airplanes rented from strange aircompanies!!!
Deletegood to see this region is on their radar.
ReplyDeleteBEG was selected because it is a regional hub. ZAG lacks reguonal connectivity. TIV is summer leisure destination.
ReplyDeleteBEG will see more airlines as they will wish to be connected to this major regional hub.
DeleteCorrect.
DeleteDanke Deutschland
DeletePity that no flights to Ljubljana were considered but not surprised.
ReplyDeleteDanke Deutschland
DeleteWhat are the other routes they are introducing from the 18?
ReplyDeleteDo you read the comments?
DeleteBesides the ex-Yu routes
DeleteFrom Riga: Istanbul, Hannover, Bucharest, Porto, Burgas, Bilbao, Yerevan and Baku.
From Tallinn: Rhodes and Heraklion.
From Vilnius: Malaga, Palma, Heraklion and Nice.
How do they reach Yerevan and Baku nowdays, I guess over Balkans and Turkey? It seems JU and A3 are in more favorable position to launch those destinations.
DeleteIt would be great if there is a plan in the near future for:
ReplyDeleteNis - Riga
Nis - Tallinn
Nis? Lol
DeleteProbably means Niš.
DeleteBut that š is so hard to find and press.
Anon 21:40 its not even that for what I meant.
DeleteFor what did you even mean?
DeleteNiš-Tallinn and Riga? Are you serious?
DeleteRiga is a beautiful city!
ReplyDeleteYes it is. Ginger beer and sausage sandwich is a must. They have a very German like city and the bridge is awesome.
DeleteAir Baltic never had F100 in fleet. They had F50, the last of which was retired 2013 and substituted with Q400
ReplyDeleteAirbaltic is shit aircompany now using airplanes of cheap companies which are old and unconfortable!
ReplyDeleteThe comany thinks about the huge profit now and no care to people who using their services!
Bravo bustardes!!! ☝️
Oh my! I wonder have you ever flown on BT A220 plane? Their seats config 2+3, generous overhead lockers and wide aisle is hard to beat. Economy cabin seat pitch is convenient even for 5h flight. If you splurge on business class you get legacy airline product (in a good sense).
DeleteI suppose anon 22:18 thinks on Carpatair planes that BT took in wet leasing and they are really horrible.
DeleteF100 was leased that summer I think from some Croatian company.
ReplyDelete