LONDON – airBaltic this week stated that Tenerife, Dubai, and Paris were the top destinations in the network for January 2023.
From the Latvian capital of Riga, the three major destinations were at the top of the table, alongside its consistently popular destinations:
- Copenhagen
- Amsterdam
- Oslo
- Helsinki
airBaltic: Diversity in the Destinations…
Expanding on this was airBaltic’s CEO Martin Gauss, who went into detail about why Tenerife, Dubai, and Paris were the top destinations for January 2023:
“Currently, we are living in a favorable situation, where the presence of the pandemic no more limits the possibilities to travel, and a growing number of passengers are already planning their trips up to two months in advance and more.”
“Traditionally, at this time of the year, we can record much higher demand for warm and sunny leisure destinations, but also beautiful European cities are being frequently visited.”
“Our top January destinations demonstrate the diversity of the airBaltic route network, as well as the appeal of affordable fares, excellent service, and convenient connections from Riga”.
Tenerife, Dubai & Paris Will Be More Popular in the Summer…
If Tenerife, Dubai & Paris are providing success in the Winter periods, it can be assumed that these routes will only get more popular for airBaltic.
Families jet-set off to these destinations even more in the Summer to take advantage of the even hotter climates, which is why the Summer 2023 season will be vital for the carrier.
Even so, it shows a positive indicator to airBaltic in terms of how fruitful these routes are from Riga, with such services offering strong demand on a year-round basis.
Such multi-purposed destinations have been key to the carrier’s growth in both flights, but also in passenger numbers, as we will explore next.
Considerable Growth at airBaltic…
The Latvian carrier has been growing exponentially in recent years, with airBaltic announcing a 67% increase in passenger numbers for January 2023 compared to the same period last year.
| January 2023 | January 2022 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of passengers | 246 800 | 147 400 | +67% |
| Number of flights | 3 030 | 2 480 | +22% |
Gauss added to this on top of the reasoning for selecting Tenerife, Dubai, and Paris as the top destinations for the airline last month:
“International forecasts show that the aviation industry is maintaining its rapid post-pandemic recovery. airBaltic, as an airline of ambition, will take advantage of this favorable situation while simultaneously demonstrating our strong position in the Baltic market and a wide range of connectivity options to Europe and beyond”.
Overall…
It remains clear that airBaltic is beginning to grasp further what sort of flights will provide significant value in terms of revenue, passenger numbers, and load factor.
Tenerife, Paris & Dubai will do that for you.
Looking ahead, it’s going to be interesting to see where else the airline will choose to expand to, and using its Airbus A220-300 fleet, they can do this with relative ease.
Under the leadership of Martin Gauss, airBaltic has gone from a small carrier to a potential threat to other carriers across Europe and beyond.
