Air Baltic expands

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sn26567
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Air Baltic expands

Post by sn26567 »

AIRBALTIC, the national airline of Latvia, but also with a hub at Vilnius (Lithuania), will launch on 29 March new flights from that city to Dublin, to Hamburg on 30 March, and to Manchester on 31March. The airline will operate its first flight to Oslo on 17 May. The frequencies vary.

For 2009 airBaltic has announced €20m provisional profit, and achieved 6% passenger growth to 2.75m.

In 2010, the airline says it will open at least nine new direct routes from its main base at Riga, and has so far announced destinations including Amman, Beirut, Belgrade, Madrid, Umea and Vaasa.

Source: AERBT
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BrightCedars
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Re: Air Baltic expands

Post by BrightCedars »

Interesting to see them announce a Riga-Beirut route. Here's the schedule:

BT 795 RIX 20:15 00:15 BEY 733 02/Jun/2010 27/Oct/2010 ..3..6.
BT 796 BEY 01:50 06:00 RIX 733 03/Jun/2010 28/Oct/2010 ...4..7

A two-weekly red-eye service. Well, I'm happy I've done BRU-BEY via more than a dozen cities so far but I'm also very happy to be flying nonstop with MEA this Summer! I'll pass on a 32% longer routing.

I guess they're after the connecting market in Scandinavia which must be a good niche, quite a number of Lebanese and Sun seekers out there! I wish them luck and hope to spot them in BEY one day.

regi
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Re: Air Baltic expands

Post by regi »

and also some Latvian expat workers . ( route to Manchester and Dublin )
Amman is a bit strange, don't you think ? Probably to do with construction companies / Iraq ?

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BrightCedars
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Re: Air Baltic expands

Post by BrightCedars »

regi wrote:Amman is a bit strange, don't you think ? Probably to do with construction companies / Iraq ?
Could be for the VFR market of Palestinians, there are huge numbers of them in the Nordic countries as well as in Jordan, and Jordan is also en entry point to Palestine (West Bank) proper.

regi
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Re: Air Baltic expands

Post by regi »

BrightCedars wrote:
regi wrote:Amman is a bit strange, don't you think ? Probably to do with construction companies / Iraq ?
Could be for the VFR market of Palestinians, there are huge numbers of them in the Nordic countries as well as in Jordan, and Jordan is also en entry point to Palestine (West Bank) proper.
The remark about the West Bank is interesting . Air Baltic has flights to Tel Aviv as well. So customers have the choice to travel to the West Bank through Tel Aviv or through Amman.

loginas
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Re: Air Baltic expands

Post by loginas »

AirBaltic will also start a new route to Tehran.

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BrightCedars
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Re: Air Baltic expands

Post by BrightCedars »

regi wrote:The remark about the West Bank is interesting . Air Baltic has flights to Tel Aviv as well. So customers have the choice to travel to the West Bank through Tel Aviv or through Amman.
Given the choice I think I have an idea where they're rather go thru.

What seems clear is that they are positioning themselves on the VFR markets between Scandinavia and the Levant or further (IKA) and will be stealing market share probably not from LH or AF but from airlines like MA or OK who make good business out of this.

loginas
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Re: Air Baltic expands

Post by loginas »

It seems that airBaltic will not fly to Tehran. Latvian media reports that apparently US goverment requested Latvian govenment to interfere and deny rights to fly there.

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BrightCedars
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Re: Air Baltic expands

Post by BrightCedars »

loginas wrote:It seems that airBaltic will not fly to Tehran. Latvian media reports that apparently US goverment requested Latvian govenment to interfere and deny rights to fly there.
If true, this is very sad news. European nations should abide by their own policies, furthermore EU members.

Isolating Iran will not solve any problem, to the contrary.

regi
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Re: Air Baltic expands

Post by regi »

loginas wrote:It seems that airBaltic will not fly to Tehran. Latvian media reports that apparently US goverment requested Latvian govenment to interfere and deny rights to fly there.
If you tell this to the Swedes, they will launch immediately a daily connection, if necesarry state sponsored.
Imagine if Europe asks US airlines to stop flying to all those undemocratic nations with massive arms build up, such as the Emirates, Kuwait, Saudia Arabia,..
Come on, what kind of interference in free entreprise is this !

b720
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Re: Air Baltic expands

Post by b720 »

Indeed bright cedars, and regi.. I agree..

pathetic that the latvians accomodated the US on this one.. US airlines fly to Cuba - charter flights, still direct links - and Cuba is on the "terrorist" watch list of the USA..needless to say the numerous daily connections between US and venezuela, also an arch foe of the US.. hypocracy at its best..

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IR800
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Re: Air Baltic expands

Post by IR800 »

Really sad to hear they changed their mind about flying to Tehran. I wish I could see AirBaltic here in IKA soon.
Anyway, if they mean competing with IranAir in NORDIC, I'm in doubt they could. Almost all of Iranians residing Europe prefer flying with IranAir.
As you might know, Viking Air has recently launched a once a week ARN-IKA-ARN flight, but they hardly get any load and their flights are due to cancellation every week. So it seems that AirBaltic had better forget about competing with IranAir and focus on destinations where IranAir doesn't fly, like HEL or OSL.

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