October is a milestone month for the Latvian airline airBaltic, it is celebrating its 23rd anniversary since the launch of commercial operations.
The airline started on 1st October 1995 with its first flight ever from Riga to Stockholm with a small propeller SAAB 340. Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic: “We have played a central role in connecting Baltics to the world, and we are committed to further improve the air connectivity of each of the Baltic states in the future. By 2025, when airBaltic will celebrate its 30th anniversary, we aim to have a single fleet of up to 80 Airbus A220-300 aircraft. When airBaltic began operations, its team consisted of 21 employees. Today, our professional team has grown to 1 500 highly motivated individuals,” Gauss added.
During the past 23 years, airBaltic has carried nearly 40 million passengers and performed over 670 000 flights. In October 1995, airBaltic started operations from Riga to four destinations. Today airBaltic operates direct flights from Riga to over 70 destinations and its fleet has grown to 35 aircraft.
airBaltic serves over 70 destinations from Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius, offering the largest variety of destinations and convenient connections via Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, the CIS and the Middle East. For summer 2019, airBaltic has introduced three new destinations from Tallinn to Malaga, Brussels and Copenhagen. In addition, next summer airBaltic will launch a new direct route connecting Riga and Stuttgart. The airBaltic fleet consists of 35 aircraft – 12 Airbus A220-300s, 11 Boeing 737s and 12 Bombardier Q400 NextGen aircraft.