LONDON – airBaltic has announced it will expand its offering from Tampere, Finland with a new route to Amsterdam.
Services will commence from June 1 on a twice-weekly basis using the airline’s flagship Airbus A220-300 aircraft.
There has been significant attention around the Tampere base, as this is airBaltic’s first outside of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
Other Routes from Tampere…
Starting May 1, the carrier will be launching services to the following destinations from the new base:
- Copenhagen – Three-weekly.
- Frankfurt – Three-weekly.
- Malaga – Twice-weekly.
- Munich – Three-weekly.
- Oslo – Three-weekly.
- Rhodes – Twice-weekly.
Such news of the new base came last year, following airBaltic’s relationship with Tampere spanning back nearly five years.
CEO Martin Gauss said the following to RoutesOnline back in December:
“Our decision to open a new base in Tampere shows our strong commitment to this city and will offer more convenient and affordable travel options for many Finnish passengers”.
Is Tampere A Good Move Ahead of Summer 2022?
With a lot of Finnish people wanting to get some sun in Summer 2022, launching services to the likes of Malaga, Rhodes, and Amsterdam, for example, make a lot of sense.
This will no doubt offer more connectivity for the population surrounding Tampere and may open up more opportunities to go away on holiday.
With airBaltic now expanding out of the Baltics, it remains clear that there is some level of demand in the markets that they wish to serve, which makes this a no-brainer.
Popular routes like this will have a good return on investment, especially if it means passengers won’t have to commute as much in order to catch flights to destinations like this.
A220 Utilization is Key…
It is clear that the airline’s utilization of the Airbus A220 is helping them in this situation.
A streamlined fleet with streamlined costs has enabled the airline to grow into secondary airports where runway length is not as much of an issue.
On top of that, with the range the aircraft offers, it makes sense why airBaltic is using this aircraft, especially for flights that could be anywhere between 4-5 hours.
It is also why the A220 has presented a lot of success, particularly in expanding into markets further away from the Baltics and succeeding in them too.
Overall…
What remains clear is that airBaltic is positioning itself well to take on a lot of the excess capacity that we are going to see this Summer.
Utilizing secondary airports around the Baltics and the surrounding areas seems to be the move that they would be keen on doing more looking into the future.
The priority for the carrier now will be a positive start to the base launch and making sure that they are filling up the aircraft as much as they can.
And if demand exceeds supply, then more flights will be needed out of the area, which will never be something the airline would complain about.
