A/S Air Baltic Corporation | In the EU in 2004
In the EU in 2004
The airline carried 589,288 passengers in 2004, a hefty 75 percent increase over 2003's 336,000 passengers. New, low one-way fares fueled growth. Another factor was the opening of a second hub in Vilnius, Lithuania. According to company President Bertolt Flick, an increase in passenger volume was necessary to offset the steady fall in ticket prices. The route network continued to expand, adding Dublin, Oslo, and Milan, the latter offered as a holiday destination on the Mediterranean. The new 737s also allowed for economical service to London—historically the highest volume route from Riga.
Latvia's membership in the EU had opened airBaltic to low-cost competition from distant lands, such as Ireland's Ryanair. Flick pointed out to the Baltic Times, however, that airBaltic had already had considerable success of its own using a low-fare model. It remained the dominant player at booming Riga International Airport, which served more than one million passengers in 2004, up 50 percent from the previous year. airBaltic's own passenger count rose a heart-stopping 75 percent during the year, thanks in part to EU-inspired traffic.
airBaltic entered 2005 with a fleet of seven Boeing 737 jets and a half-dozen Fokker 50 turboprops. The route network continued to spread south in the spring of 2005, with scheduled services added to Istanbul and Barcelona. Flick told the Baltic Times, however, that the airline was focused on increasing flight frequency to meet skyrocketing demand rather than adding destinations.
In the spring of 2005, service from Riga to Liepaja, on Latvia's west coast, was reintroduced for the first time in 45 years. It was not expected to be a profitable route. Ventspils and Daugavpils were other domestic destinations under consideration.