“In planning our winter timetable we have taken our passengers’ wishes into account, offering more direct routes and an increased number of flights, as well as lower ticket prices,” said Bertolt Flick, airBaltic president. “We hope that our passengers will view these changes positively and that the changes themselves will further the growth in air passenger traffic to and from the Baltic region.”

The most striking new addition to this winter’s timetable is the opening of direct flights to Dnepropetrovsk, the largest industrial centre and one of the biggest cities in Ukraine. Not only is this a major business destination in its own right, it is the gateway to the indutrial centres of Kharkov, Donetsk and the Donbas region: with this route, airBaltic – which already flies direct to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and the Black Sea port of Odessa – has opened up the whole of the eastern Ukraine to its passengers.

“During the Soviet era, Dnepropetrovsk was a restricted area because of its military-industrial plants. As a result, getting to the city has remained complicated even to this day, not only from the Baltics, but from all over Europe. We are pleased to be able to offer passengers this convenient way of getting to such a major industrial city,” says president Bertolt Flick. Indeed, taken in conjunction with the visa-free regime which Ukraine now offers all EU citizens, airBaltic’s new direct flight is a major breakthrough in terms of east-west travel.

Initially, airBaltic will operate flights to Dnepropetrovsk three times per week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Fares will be priced on the basis of one-way ticketing, and will start at the price of LVL 70 / EUR 100 (including all taxes). The flight will be serviced with a Fokker-50 aircraft and will last three hours. Flights to Odessa – also in a Fokker-50, and also lasting three hours – depart four times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, while flights to Kiev, in a Boeing 737-500, depart daily except Saturdays and last one hour and forty minutes.

This is by no means the only addition to the timetable, however: airBaltic is also increasing the frequency of flights on some of its most popular routes. Throughout the winter, flights to Oslo will depart from Riga nine times per week: daily every day except Saturdays, and twice daily on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Moreover, a special offer on flights to Oslo is now available on the airBaltic website, www.airbaltic.com: one-way tickets starting at LVL 16 / EUR 23 (airport taxes included). The number of flights from Riga to Paris has also been increased: flights now depart four times weekly, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Flights from Riga to Stuttgart, however, have been discontinued.

The airline’s fleet, meanwhile, has been enlarged by the addition of two more Fokker-50 aircraft, which will be stationed in Vilnius, and with this added capacity, airBaltic is increasing the number of flights it operates between Tallinn and Vilnius to a remarkable 16 per week: three per day on weekdays and one flight on Sundays. This unprecedented frequency of service means that business passengers in Estonia and Lithuania will now be able to travel to each other’s country and back in only a few hours, leading to an invaluable saving in time and effort.

Given the increased demand for tickets over the Christmas and New Year holiday period, the number of flights from both Riga and Vilnius to Dublin will be increased.