Riga. In August 2017, the Latvian airline airBaltic carried 386 597 passengers or 21% more than in the same period of 2016. For already the third month in a row it has been the biggest number of transported passengers in the airline’s history. During the first eight months of 2017, airBaltic has transported a total of 2 345 371 passengers to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, CIS and the Middle East.

Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic: “We have seen three very strong and successful summer months. With a bigger fleet, we have performed 16% more flights. Usually, when the number of flights increases, load factor becomes smaller. We have managed to increase both. Our load factor in July and August hit the highest mark in company’s history.”

“This summer has been exciting not only to the company, but our passengers as well. With more state-of-the-art Bombardier CS300 aircraft joining our fleet, now already every fourth passenger has the benefit of travelling with increased comfort of bigger seats, windows and much quieter aircraft,” Gauss noted.

In August, the airline performed 4 799 flights, or 15% more than in the same period of 2016. During the first eight months of the 2017 airBaltic has operated 33 059 flights.

The airline’s load factor, which represents the number of passengers as a proportion of the number of available seats, was at a level of 85.8% in August 2017. During the first eight months of 2017, airBaltic’s load factor was at a level of 77.7% and it is the highest in the history of the airline.

The 15-minute flight punctuality indicator for airBaltic reached a level of 85.1% in August 2017. This means that more than 85 of every 100 airBaltic flights departed at the planned time or with a delay of no more than 15 minutes. The flight punctuality indicator during the first eight months of 2017 reached a level of 87.4%.

For the summer season of 2018 airBaltic has added Malaga (Spain), Lisbon (Portugal), Split (Croatia), Bordeaux (France) and Gdansk (Poland). A complete schedule of airBaltic flights can be found on the company's homepage at www.airbaltic.com.

airBaltic operates direct flights from Riga to over 60 destinations. airBaltic offers convenient connections via Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, the CIS and the Middle East. In addition, airBaltic also offers direct flights from Tallinn and Vilnius.