Ryanair becomes the first budget airline to fly to Latvia

[vueling]

Many people have been waiting for Ryanair to announce new routes further east into Europe after an initial early promise to do so by the airline. Today, Ryanair have done just that by announcing new routes to Riga, making them the first budget airline to fly to the recent EU-addition, Latvia, and the first budget airline to fly from the UK to any of the Baltic states.


Ryanair will begin flights to Riga on 31 October from London (Stansted), Frankfurt (Hahn) and Tampere.


In addition, Ryanair have added 2 further destinations to the budget-flying map, Santander and Zaragoza in Spain. They will fly to Zaragoza from London (Stansted) (beginning 01 December 2004) and to Santander from London (Stansted), Rome (Ciampino) and Frankfurt (Hahn) (beginning 20 September 2004).

[Captain]

Great news. That Ryanair has emulated Easyjet by starting to launch new routes in Easter Europe.

Riga is meant to be a really nice city with lot's to offer. It's apparently still relatively cheap and not yet on the tourist map, so go now before it's overcrowded like Prague.

Looking forward to new routes.

Captain

[t0m]

indeed, I was in Riga earlier this month.

While it isn't as cheap as neighbouring Lithuania, it certainly is good value. Left with the equivalent of only £3 in our pockets, we were concerned that we wouldn't be able to afford breakfast. We took to the huge markets by the central bus station and ended up buying a ridiculously huge breakfast of fruit, cakes and coffee + sandwiches and pizza for lunch, and had only managed to spend half of our budget.

It's a lovely city too, and in my opinoon, absolutely great news that at long last Ryanair have decided to expand in that direction.

[B744skipper]

Riga is meant to be a really nice city with lot's to offer. It's apparently still relatively cheap and not yet on the tourist map, so go now before it's overcrowded like Prague.

I was in Latvia/Riga area last week(end) and only can confirm that. It's cheap, beautiful and the girls are also lovely. :thumbsup2:
The city is really stunning, almost the whole center part of Riga is renovated and is very interesting for a sightseeing tour. I just love Latvia, because of the prices, country, food, architecture, people, and the way the Latvian people think and approach one.

Ryanair becomes the first budget airline to fly to Latvia

I think Air Baltic can also be considered an LCC, because they offer low prices, the cost structure is like that (the first seats are have the lowest prices and the last one are the most expensive ones) and one has to pay for food/drinks.

[pee]

I was there (by train) soon after Soviet era ended, great city even then. But hey, why Ryanair is so repellent about this: "We got a low cost-base deal in Riga, there was no other reason for going there", said Ryanair spokeswoman. And they always stress it: "We do not see any sense in flying to new EU countries. There is nothing to be seen". Do they really want to have many customers with that kind of negative, obnoxious marketing?
By the way, did you notice that Ryanair will charge Taxes, Fees & Charges 27.81 EUR(!) on depart from Riga while Riga Airport actually lowered charges per tonne of aircraft and ended its tax per passenger?