Air Baltic starting flights between Turku and Riga

Latvian carrier Air Baltic will start operating between Turku and the Latvian capital Riga in July, offering four return flights a week on the new route. These will depart from Turku to Riga on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8.35 a.m. and Riga to Turku on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays at 7.05 p.m. The flight time is one and a half hours onboard a Fokker 50 turboprop.

Turku is Air Baltic’s fifth destination in Finland, and the airline operates onward connections from Riga to over 50 destinations in Europe and Central Asia. Recently appointed commercial director Tero Taskila says that the company also aims to attract transfer passengers.

Originally an SAS subsidiary focusing on business flights, Air Baltic is now an independent carrier whose biggest shareholder is the state of Latvia. Air Baltic is not a budget airline as such but does aim to offer inexpensive flights for leisure travellers.

Turku Airport already offers direct international flights to Stockholm, Copenhagen and Gdansk plus domestic flights to Helsinki, Tampere and Oulu.