The United Arab Emirates (UAE) airline flydubai hopes to increase flight frequencies between Riga and Dubai, Jeyhun Efendi, Senior Vice President for Commercial Operations and E-Commerce at flydubai, told LETA.
He said that flydubai launched flights between Riga and Dubai on Friday and currently operates three flights per week, but the airline aims to increase the frequency to seven flights per week.
Efendi noted that any increase in flight frequency would depend on demand and did not rule out the possibility that daily flights could be introduced as early as next year or in 2027.
He added that passengers will be able to travel from Riga to Dubai and onward to destinations such as the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand using flydubai connections. From Dubai, travelers also have access to more than 200 destinations served by Emirates. Efendi emphasized that the passenger profile is very broad and that flydubai is not focused on a single market segment.
The flydubai executive also said that the airline wants to develop tourism flows from the UAE to the Baltic states, particularly Latvia, as the region is not widely known as a holiday destination. He stressed that year-round direct flights, especially during the summer season, would significantly increase interest. For this reason, flydubai plans to work with tour operators to raise the region’s profile.
Efendi noted that load factors on flights between Riga and Dubai are particularly high during the Christmas and New Year period, but the airline’s goal is to ensure stable demand throughout the year.
He said that flydubai’s main competitor on the route would be Latvia’s national airline airBaltic, which currently operates five flights per week. However, flydubai sees an opportunity to operate daily flights, given that Dubai is a strong and attractive market.
At the same time, Efendi pointed out that flydubai is based in Dubai and therefore has no plans to open a base at Riga Airport or to launch new destinations from Riga in the near future.
Riga Airport CEO Laila Odina told LETA that last year 54,000 passengers traveled between Riga Airport and Dubai with airBaltic. Of these, 21 percent were transfer passengers who had arrived in Riga from other destinations to continue their journey to Dubai, while 40 percent used Dubai as a transfer hub, she said.
Odina noted that flydubai will improve connectivity from Riga, as Dubai also offers onward connections to destinations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, as well as other regions.
Riga Airport has previously said that flydubai offers flights to more than 135 destinations in 58 countries, over 100 of which previously had no direct air connections to Dubai. The airline’s fleet currently consists of 97 aircraft, primarily Boeing 737s.
It has also been reported that flydubai had initially planned to launch direct flights between Riga and Dubai on October 11, 2024, but announced last August that it had abandoned the plan due to delays in the delivery of new aircraft.
Riga Airport handled a total of 7.12 million passengers last year, 7 percent more than in 2024 but still 8.7 percent fewer than in 2019.
Riga Airport is the largest aviation hub in the Baltic states.
Source: BNS
(Reproduction of BNS information in mass media and other websites without written consent of BNS is prohibited)
