Tero Taskila, Chief Commercial Officer of airBaltic:

“airBaltic will become the first airline in history to link Umeå and Riga – two cities that have been nominated to become Europe’s cultural capitals in 2014. airBaltic made a similar step already at the end of last year when the link between two European Capitals of Culture 2011 Turku and Tallinn was established. airBaltic has worked hard to expand its list of destinations in Scandinavia. We want to allow people from the region to visit Latvia or to use Riga as a transit airport for flights to destinations such as Barcelona, Berlin, Zurich, Venice, Vienna, Moscow, Kaliningrad, and many others. Umeå is a lovely destination, and the new airBaltic route will surely attract increasing numbers of travellers from Western Europe, the Mediterranean and the CIS.”

Until May 30, airBaltic will fly from Riga to Umeå four times a week – Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays (from Umeå to Riga on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays). Beginning on May 31, the flights will be offered daily. The flights to and from Umeå will make a stop at the Finnish town of Vaasa. Passengers will board a Fokker 50 aircraft for a flight that will last for two hours and 30 minutes. One-way ticket prices will start at LVL 28 (EUR 39), including airport fees and transaction costs. A full schedule of flights is available on the company’s homepage – www.airbaltic.com.