airBaltic, the Latvian national carrier, has today announced the company’s intent to open a base on Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (LPA) over the winter, with the base featuring ten direct routes from October 2023, over the winter season.
The company will see service to some interesting destinations in this network, as it goes head-on with carriers in the nordics, like Norwegian and SAS, on their new services to Oslo, Bergen and Copenhagen.
New base, new routes
The airport of Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, will see a lot more of airBaltic the coming winter season, as the company opens a winter season base, stationing two Airbus A220-300 aircraft to serve ten direct routes.
Among the destinations announced, airBaltic appears to be aiming high, as they will proceed with routes to outside the Baltics. Among these, we find Oslo, Oslo Torp, Aalborg, Copenhagen, Billund, Bergen and Tampere.
On the new base and new routes, airBaltic President & CEO Martin Gauss, said the following: “When preparing for the upcoming season, we always carefully analyze the market dynamics.”
“For winter months, when the overall passenger demand worldwide is traditionally lower, we have identified an opportunity to optimize our capacity to be as efficient as possible.”
“By establishing a seasonal base and operating two aircraft from Las Palmas to serve the demand for sunny and leisure destinations. Such expanded presence in Gran Canaria not only enhances connectivity, but also provides passengers with a wide range of convenient travel options.”
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The company previously opened direct flights between Riga and Las Palmas last year, and will now connect the airport to nine new destinations in the Northern Europe.
All routes will go on sale at 21 June, with no starting price mentioned to either destination.
Time tables
The new routes are due to start this December, and the frequencies are as follows:
- Gran Canaria – Riga
- 3 flights weekly from October 23
- Gran Canaria – Bergen
- 2 flights weekly from December 1
- Gran Canaria – Billund
- 2 flights weekly from December 1
- Gran Canaria – Copenhagen
- 1 flight weekly from December 2
- Gran Canaria – Vilnius
- 1 flight weekly from December 2
- Gran Canaria – Oslo Gardermoen
- 2 flights weekly from December 3
- Gran Canaria – Oslo Torp
- 2 flights weekly from December 2
- Gran Canaria – Aalborg
- 2 flights weekly from December 3
- Gran Canaria – Tampere
- 1 flight weekly from December 5
- Gran Canaria – Tallinn
- 1 flight weekly from December 7
About airBaltic
airBaltic is a international airline from Latvia and is the national flag carrier for the country, with bases in neighbouring Baltic countries, Estonia and Lithuania.
The airline flies to more than 70 destinations across Europe and the Middle East from its bases in the Baltic countries.
Furthermore than airline operates a total fleet of 40 Airbus A220-300s. In fact, it is the only airline in the world with a all-A220 fleet and the airline with the largest fleet of A220s.
The airline was formed in was formed in 1995 with the signing of a joint venture between SAS and the Latvian state.
The airline began operations with a Saab 340 which grew to 3 aircraft before being replaced by 10 Fokker 50s, plus 4 Avro RJ70s.
2003 saw the first 737-500 delivered to the fleet and then in the following year, the airlines base in Vilnius, Lithuania was established with 5 destinations initially.
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