Review of Air Baltic flight Riga → London in Economy

Air Baltic (A quick Background)

Air Baltic was founded as the national carrier for Latvia in August 1995, following the dissolution of the USSR and Latvia gaining independence they formed an airline called Latavio (Latvian Airlines) which folded in 1996. Whilst Latavio primarily used Soviet aircraft inherited through Aeroflot's Latvian branch, Air Baltic operated Western built Avro RJ85/BAe-146 and Saab 340s early on.

By the early 2000s, Air Baltic gained its first Boeing 737-Classic (using the 737-300 & 737-500). It had added the Fokker F50 for regional services. The Boeing 737-Classics replaced its original Avro RJ85 fleet by 2005. During the late 2000s the airline added Boeing 757-200 for longer flights across Europe to serve holiday flights out of range of the Boeing 737 & Fokker F50s.

By 2010, the airline operated a fleet of Boeing 737-Classic on its main services, with regional services operated by Bombardier Dash 8 Q-400, replacing the Fokker F50 fully by 2013. The Boeing 757 fleet became surplus to requirement only serving from 2008 to 2014.

Air Baltic became the second European airline to operate Bombardier's newest regional jet aircraft- the C-Series, operating the Bombardier CS-300, this aircraft type entered service for Air Baltic in late November 2016. The plane later became rebranded as the Airbus A220-300 in 2018.

During the pandemic the airline opted to make history by becoming the first European Airbus A220 (Bombardier C-Series) only operator, by using this single type to operate all its European operations. The airline disposed of its Boeing 737-Classic fleet by 2020 and its Dash 8 Q-400 fleet in 2023.

Whilst the airline is based in Latvia and its planes are all Latvian registered, the airline found itself becoming a pan-Baltic airline following the collapse of Estonian Air (Tallin, Estonia) and FlyLAL-Lithuanian Airlines (Villunus, Lithuania) during the 2010s, leading to the airline to establish bases in the capital cities of all three Baltic countries.

Its safe to say that Air Baltic is here to stay and has become a leading independent airline in Europe, serving almost every European country as of August 2023.

The Riga to London route is heating up on the competition front, whilst Air Baltic has held dominance on the London Gatwick services they see regular competition from Wizzair to London Luton, Ryanair to London Stansted and recently British Airways (who code-share with Air Baltic on the LGW-RIX services) have announced a return to the London Heathrow to Riga service, so things are getting hot, without factoring in the indirect options with the likes of SAS Scandinavian Airlines, Norwegian Air Shuttle or Finnair via Scandinavia or Finland.

But enough of me waffling on, shall we begin!

Flyign from Riga Airport- The Gateway to Latvia!

Riga International Airport was built in 1973 to replaced the older outdated Spilve Airport which had been the main Riga Airport since the 1920s. It has since become the home for Air Baltic since the mid-1990s and its their main hub and head quarters.

Whilst the airport is quite modern inside, the exterior still radiates the Soviet design during the era the Terminal and Airport was built. There is a lot of ongoing work to modernise and expand the infrastructure (mainly a direct rail link) to make Riga Airport a better gateway for Latvia and the Baltic states.

The airport sees services across most of Europe and parts of the Middle East thanks mainly to Ryanair and Air Baltic, since 2022 the Airport hasn't any services to Russia which had been a mainstay of its 50 year existence, Uzbekistan Airways still provides a link to Tashkent- which since 2022 is the only service linking Riga & Latvia to the CIS region and another Soviet Country East of Russia.

Despite its recent dominance of Europe and its entry into the Middle East, the Airport and its main airlines do not operate directly across the Atlantic to the US or Canada. Its hard to see if this will change in the future, but given that multiple airlines offer feeder flights to other major international European hubs (including Frankfurt, Helsinki & London)- I think this will be where that buck stops for the time being, although Air Baltic might be swayed by the Airbus A321-XLR to see if this could work out.

As I entered the building I noticed a small sign signalling the prohibition of photography, so I opted to keep any filming/photographing discreet and not in areas that I thought would cause serious trouble. Despite this, I had no issues plane spotting airside, but I kept my camera in my bag when I wasn't using it.

Just putting this note up as an advisory for anyone travelling to/from Riga Airport- you vlog or plane spot at your own risk and don't get too upset if a security personal or airport worker asks you to stop.

I found this really cool sports bar with a solid view across one of the aprons, so I opted to stop there for a snack and some spotting.

I had an orange juice alongside a fresh tomato soup, which was delicious and full of flavour- the extra bread croutons and mozzarella cheese was a lush addition!

I had to move along in order to not miss my flight home to London, which meant going through the passport control checkpoint and into the non-Schengen Area, which got me a passport stamp from Riga Airport & Latvia!

I got through quite quickly and found out my flight was going from the ground level. Heading down I found a coffee machine, and bagged a cheap coffee for about 2EUR (£1.70p), I then located a seat where I could charge my GoPro for a quick top up before the flight as well as my mobile phone.

It was not exactly a busy time when I was at Riga Airport, but I managed to see some interesting finds, some of my best finds shown bellow. I will have to come back for a proper spotting trip in the future.

My plane was delayed by about 30 minutes, it was late coming in from Italy- but it got to Riga and I saw it coming in, parking on Gate 305.

And now I think its time to get on with the Flight Experience!

BT653- Flying the CS-300/A220-300!

My Bombardier CS-300 (or Airbus A220-300) for today's flight was YL-ABE, a 2 year old aircraft that was delivered brand new to Air Baltic in mid September 2021 during the beginning of the end for the global pandemic. It sports the updated Air Baltic livery with the green tail going down the fuselage as well as a slight change to the AIR BALTIC text on the forward fuselage.

The airline can seat 149 passengers on this plane in a flexible business/economy class layout.

I boarded the aircraft and made my way to my seat for this 2hr 40min flight over to London Gatwick. The cabin looked really modern and was tinted slightly by the lime green mood lighting, reflecting the colours that have adorned Air Baltic planes for over 2 decades.

I took my place in Seat 17F, it is here that I will confess that I thought I had booked myself into the 2-abreast side of the aircraft, not the 3-abreast side, but that's a minor mistake on my end. Next time I'll get it right. It was a busy flight and a middle aged couple (I think they were Latvian) seated in the other two seats.

Once the flight was boarded, the crew closed up the aircraft and we were off to London. We didn't have a long taxi to the take off point, but we did hold as another Uzbekistan Airbus A320 arrived just ahead of us.

A handful of Air Baltic planes were parked in storage, but I was on the wrong side for them… oh well.

The plane departed and rocketed into the afternoon sky. The skies over Latvia had cleared enough so that there was a pretty solid view of Riga city centre on the climb out- you can see in one of the pictures I got a view of the Riga TV & Radio Tower.

I loved the Airbus A220/Bombardier CS-300 has this little overhead screen offering an inflight map showing the flights progress. Its something I do miss from aircraft like the Airbus A320neo & Boeing 737-NG as a lot of airlines are doing away with the clunky old screens.

The only downside was the constant repeat of Air Baltic adverts on the screen, but that's a mere First World Problem.

Air Baltic has a very informative inflight magazine called "OUTLOOK". It was full of Air Baltic news, travel journalism highlighting various destinations served by Air Baltic as well as a pretty impressive page on their time-table for July 2023. An inflight menu was at the rear of the magazine as well the instructions to use the complimentary part of the onboard Wi-Fi.

Before you fly with Air Baltic in economy, you can pre-order meals on your booking- something that's becoming more common for economy class on European Airlines who operate lengthy flights. I opted to take Air Baltic up on this as I had a long enough flight, so I opted for their beef dish- as far as economy class meals go, it was divine!

The beef cut nicely and it melted in my mouth as I ate it. The red wine tasted nice and the potato based side was an excellent paring with the beef main. As for the vanilla cake dessert- it was good, nothing special, but it was good. The choice of using rye bread was a nice touch.

I had a quick look at the IFE provided by Air Baltic's wi-fi, I screenshot a sample for this report.

It was a lovely day flying over the North Sea, though there was quite a bit of cloud cover bellow us. You can expect a fair bit of turbulence over the North Sea during winter, but on this summer's day- we had little if any.

A quick loo visit was needed, I had to use the rear toilet, so there wasn't a "Loo with a View", but as the rear galley was deserted, I grabbed a galley shot and a peak out of the rear door window, before returning to my seat. Ample time and excuse to give my legs a stretch and walk.

I found that I could order online inflight snacks, as I had an hour or so of the flight remaining, I opted to buy a quick cup of tea alongside some rather nice looking blackcurrant cookies. They were very nice and the box of cookies would come in handy for my transit down to Bournemouth from London Gatwick after I arrived.

We eventually entered UK Airspace and began to circle over Sussex as there was a delay getting into a busy London Gatwick as the weather had turned in London. It held up our arrival giving us a 45 minute delay in the end. Whilst we had made up some of the initial delay getting out of Riga, it was pilled on and exceeded by Gatwick Airport putting us in a hold for 15-20 minutes.

Eventually it was our turn to land, and we final made it into London Gatwick, we didn't have too long a taxi over to the main pier of the South Terminal which I've left and arrived many times before. Typical UK summertime as it was raining as we pulled up on stand.

I did ask about a flight deck visit as we'd landed, but the cabin crew said that wouldn't be possible as the pilots were keen to catch up on getting out of London Gatwick and back to Riga, which is fair. These things happen.

Hopefully on my next Airbus A220/Bombardier C-Series flight I'll get a flight deck visit as I've not seen one before and it would be nice to get a photo for my archive.

As I left I got this nice view of the aircraft parked on its stand, so I took this showcasing the busy LGW rush going on as well. 

As I still had 2 hours before my coach to Bournemouth, I opted once I had passed a rather empty passport control to go and get dinner at the Giraffe restaurant and bar at the London Gatwick South Terminal, I've been there a few times and its somewhere I like to go for a good meal if I have a wait before a late coach journey.

The food is good and most of the prices are not too bad coming from a London Airport location, so I hope this comes as a bit of good advice for anyone reading this with a London Gatwick trip coming soon!

After being very well "wined & dined" it was time to leave and find my coach homeward bound for the last leg.

I hope you enjoyed this flight report, and I'll be back in the near future with what will hopefully be an epic return to long-haul travel for me as I take an AvGeek Tour of Australia in November 2023!