This winter season, which is to start on Sunday, 28 October, travellers will have an opportunity to choose from 77 flight destinations offered from Riga Airport. The widest network of routes in the Baltics will allow passengers to experience a different winter - be it exciting vacation trips, culture and architecture of European capitals, or comfortable business trips.
Riga Airport in co-operation with airlines will offer its passengers two new destinations this winter season: on 1 November, the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair will launch flights to the Scottish capital of Edinburgh or the ‘Athens of the North’, and on 2 March, the Hungarian low-cost airline Wizzair will open a new service to Kiev in Ukraine.
The national airline airBaltic will continue flights to the destinations launched in the summer 2018 - to Lisbon (Portugal), Madrid and Malaga (Spain) and Nice (France), while Ryanair will fly to Girona (Spain) and Paphos (Cyprus). Wizzair will keep flights to Kutaisi (Georgia) on its offer.
A total of 16 carriers will operate flights from Riga Airport in the winter season: airBaltic, Ryanair, WizzAir, Aeroflot, SAS, Finnair, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Lufthansa, LOT Polish Airlines, Utair, Turkish Airlines, Ukraine International Airlines, Uzbekistan Airways, Belavia, GetJet Airlines and Smartlynx Airlines.
Ilona Līce, Chairperson of the Board of Riga International Airport: “Also this winter, Riga Airport offers its passengers a wide variety of destinations. Compared to the last year's winter season, the route network has added several sunny destinations, which will please those who wish to escape the winter. There are exciting offers for skiing enthusiasts, business travellers and those who wish to enjoy Christmas fairs in the largest European cities.” The number of passengers handled at Riga Airport in the first nine months of this year has already reached 5.7 million, which is nearly 17% more than during the corresponding period last year.
The winter timetable will take effect on 28 October together with transition to the wintertime when clocks are turned an hour backward. To avoid misunderstandings, passengers should double-check their flight departure times. This can be done by contacting the selected airlines, on Riga Airport website www.riga-airport.com, as well as by calling the Airport information service 1817.
The Airport reminds that as of 1 November, the conditions for the carriage of baggage on Wizzair and Ryanair flights will change, and calls on passengers to read carefully the new rules on airlines' websites prior to their trip to avoid any possible misunderstandings and delays at the Airport.
Riga International Airport is the second fastest growing airport in Europe according to the Airport Council International (ACI) report on airport performance in Europe in the 2nd quarter of 2018. The 20 airlines operating at Riga Airport offer more than 70 destinations in the winter season and 100 in the summer season. In 2017, Riga Airport handled over 6 million passengers - 45% of the entire Baltic air passenger traffic.