The Latvian airline AirBaltic announced that in 2023, it carried approximately 4.5 million passengers, 36 per cent more than 2022.
In addition, this airline operated more than 44,000 flights, which represents an 18 per cent increase compared to 2022, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Commenting on this growth, President and CEO of AirBaltic, Martin Gaus, said that 2023 turned out to be a year of significant milestones.
He further revealed that during the last year, AirBaltic has grown its network, providing more than 100 direct routes from home cities Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Tampere, and now – seasonally from Gran Canaria.
At AirBaltic, our commitment extends beyond connecting the Baltics with the world, as we also aim to continuously enhance passenger experiences and make substantial contributions to the economy.
Whereas only in December last year, 339,300 passengers travelled with this airline, marking an 18 per cent increase compared to the same month in the previous year. In addition, AirBaltic operated 3600 flights during this period, which was also a 14 per cent increase compared to the same month in 2022.
The top destinations from Riga during this month were Dubai, Vienna, and Copenhagen. Dubai was among the top destinations the previous month as well.
These destinations are popular among both leisure and business travellers due to the airline’s focus on providing passengers a wide variety of travel options and flexible timetables.
Apart from these destinations, AirBaltic’s flights to Tenerife, Prague, London, and Frankfurt were also listed among the most popular routes from Riga.
In addition, of 470,701 passengers that travelled through the Riga International Airport of Latvia, more than 50 per cent or 265,700 were carried by AirBaltic airline. According to the airport authorities, this airline also operated 2,759 flights during this month, more than other airlines.
Between January and November 2023, the International Airport of Riga in Latvia welcomed more than 6.1 million passengers in total.
Recently, AirBaltic Airlines has decided to suspend all its flights to and from Tel Aviv. As the company stated in a previous press release, such a decision comes due to their uncertainty related to the current situation in Israel.
Although, they confirmed that they are in contact with national and international authorities, thus they are ready to change their flight schedule if needed.
The Latvian airline took such a measure first in October 2023, after the Hamas attack on Israel.