Etihad Airways, airBaltic Announce New Riga-Abu Dhabi Service

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, and airBaltic, Latvia’s flag carrier, recently announced that direct Riga-Abu Dhabi flights will commence on 16 December 2013.

The announcement follows the signing of a codeshare agreement between the two airlines. Subject to regulatory approvals, airBaltic will operate the new four weekly return flights using a 116 seat Airbus A319 aircraft.

With seating capacity for 14 Business class and 102 Economy class passengers, the flights will operate on a split schedule, ensuring optimal connectivity over each airline’s respective hubs in Abu Dhabi and Riga.

Etihad Airways will place its “EY” flight code on the new Riga flights, and subject to government approvals, beyond to 19 cities including:  Billund, Copenhagen, Tallinn, Helsinki, Lappeenranta, Turku, Hamburg, Alesund, Bergen, Oslo, Stavanger, Vilnius, Warsaw, Stockholm, Kiev, Vienna, Prague, Barcelona and Istanbul.

In return, airBaltic will place its “BT” flight code on Etihad Airways flights beyond Abu Dhabi to Cairo, Jakarta, Singapore, Bangkok, Amman and Muscat, subject to government approvals.

The UAE is one of Latvia’s main trading partners in the Gulf region. In 2012, Latvia’s exports to the UAE reached 72 million euros, 102 percent up on 2011, and imports from the UAE to Latvia amounted to 4.1 million euros, up 44 percent on 2011.*

*Latvia’s main exports to the UAE are machinery and electronics (66 percent), food products (14 percent), vehicles (six percent), woodwork (five percent) as well as chemical products and pharmaceuticals (two percent).

New Abu Dhabi-Riga flight schedule