Wizz Air opens Baltic base

Low-cost carrier (LCC) Wizz Air is to open a new base in the Latvian capital Riga June 19, the carrier announced Friday.

Hungary-based Wizz Air will initially position a single Airbus A320 at Riga and use the capacity provided by the 180-seat aircraft to start operating four new routes – to Barcelona; Doncaster and Sheffield in northern England; Dortmund and Paris Beauvais.

It will also increase frequencies on its existing Riga services to London Luton and Oslo Torp.

With the new destinations Wizz Air will ofer 25 weekly flights on eight routes from Riga, representing an estimated 85% growth in capacity, year on year, up to July 2014. It carried 200,000 passengers from Riga in 2013.

At a press conference in Riga, Wizz Air CEO József Váradi commented that the new Riga base would bring a significant capital investment and create jobs with both the airline and its local business partners.