It seems Ryanair has found another place to open a base – this time Riga in Latvia.
Ryanair Boeing 737-800 coming into land at Dublin Airport – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
The airline will aim to operate 95 flights a week out of Riga with its Buzz subsidiary – with 30 routes in total. 16 of these will be brand new routes.
It’s all gone yellow with Riga being a Buzz base – Rendering, Ryanair.
The base will open in October 21, with two aircraft based at the airport. The 16 new routes the airline will serve the following routes:
- Aarhus (Denmark) – 3 time a week
- Bristol (United Kingdom) – 2 times a week
- Budapest (Hungary) – 3 times a week
- Gothenburg (Sweden)- 3 times a week
- Krakow (Poland) – 2 times a week
- Kviv (Ukraine) 2 times a week, subject to governmental approval
- Lviv (Ukraine) 2 times a week, subject to governmental approval
- Malaga (Spain) – 2 times a week
- Memmingen (Germany) – 2 times a week
- Warsaw Modlin (Poland) – 5 times a week
- Palermo (Italy) – 2 times a week
- Paris Beauvais (France) – 2 times a week
- Rome Ciampino (Italy)- 3 times a week
- Torp Sandefjord (Norway) 4 times a week
- Frankfurt Hahn – 2 times a week, to be launched in Winter Season
- Venice Treviso – 2 times a week, to be launched in Winter Season
According to the airline, the new base represents a $200m investment, creating 60 jobs directly.
Tickets are open for booking – with another Ryanair sale with tickets starting €19.99 from Riga (and if you know Ryanair and its subidaries by now, you know that’s for a seat and a bag under your feet – anything else is extra).
In Quotes
Ryanair’s Commercial Director, Jason McGuinness, said:
“We are delighted to announce the opening of a new base in Riga, which will support economic recovery as well as international connectivity, delivering 16 new routes (30 in total) from the end of October. This is a significant announcement for the Ryanair Group and a great boost for Buzz in Latvia with the creation of these 60 jobs.
Efficient operations and competitive airport charges provides the foundation from which Ryanair can deliver long-term traffic growth and increased connectivity. We have worked closely with Riga airport to secure this growth and improve the services for those that live, work or wish to visit the region. At a time when other airlines are reducing their workforce, we’re delighted to be making further investments in both our people and in airports throughout Europe and look forward to commencing the recruitment for these roles very soon.
These new routes provide our Latvian consumers with even greater choice, connecting them to a host of international destinations including Budapest, Malaga, Palermo and Paris Beauvais, as Riga welcomes tourists from 17 countries from this winter. Mindful that Covid restrictions change regularly, customers can now book flights for a well-deserved break knowing that if they need to postpone or change their travel dates, they can do so up to two times with a zero-change fee until the end of October 2021.
A lot of leisure routes still
Looking at the route network that Ryanair is establishing out of Riga, the focus, for now, seems to be leisure based rather than business traffic (which we all know has slumped due to the human malware).
Only Warsaw seems to be getting any route coverage that a business traveller could use with confidence.
Basing two aircraft at Riga is enough to test the waters at the region, to see if passengers flock to the airline.
For airBaltic, they will be keeping an eye on what Ryanair Group does on its home turf – and if it chooses to go toe-to-toe with them.
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