AirBaltic is adding two new European routes to its winter 2026-2027 schedule, extending a broader expansion plan that the Latvian carrier has been building across the season. The airline will launch a new route from Riga to Turin in Italy and another from Vilnius in Lithuania to Geneva in Switzerland. According to the company, Vilnius-Geneva service will begin on January 2, 2027, followed by Riga-Turin on January 30, 2027. Both routes will operate once a week on Saturdays using Airbus A220-300 aircraft, the core type in AirBaltic’s single-fleet strategy.
The additions are modest in frequency, but they fit a larger pattern in the airline’s network planning. AirBaltic had already announced 12 new routes for the same winter season, including links from Gran Canaria to Warsaw, Poznan, Katowice, and Liege, as well as services from Tenerife to Ljubljana, Palanga, Liege, and Kuusamo. From December, the carrier also plans to add weekly flights from Kuusamo to Berlin, Hamburg, Manchester, and London Gatwick. Taken together, the schedule shows a carrier leaning further into seasonal and point-to-point demand rather than relying only on traditional hub flows.
For AirBaltic, the strategy appears aimed at capturing a mix of leisure traffic, diaspora travel, and niche regional demand during the winter period. Turin and Geneva both add relevance for winter sports and premium leisure traffic, while Vilnius and Riga continue to serve as useful bases for targeted expansion. More broadly, the move underlines how mid-sized European airlines are using selective route additions and fleet consistency to stay competitive without overcommitting capacity in a still uneven market.
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