airBaltic opened a new base in Tampere-Pirkkala (TMP), Finland, which will connect to seven destinations in Europe in addition to continued operations to Riga, Latvia.
Finland’s second largest city will be connected to major European cities and additionally a couple of summer connections, including to Malaga (AGP) in Spain.
See Also: airBaltic to hire more staff for summer 2022.
«As of today we call Tampere one of our bases. The opening of the new base brings new travel opportunities for our current and future passengers. We expect passenger demand to grow gradually, therefore, we can launch additional new destinations to various business hubs and leisure destinations over time,» Martin Gauss, CEO of airBaltic.
Tampere was only served by Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), Finnair and Ryanair. The low cost decided to withdraw its base in 2015 which provided connectivity to seven cities in Germany, UK, Italy, Hungary and Spain.
It reached its peak in 2008 when the airline mobilized 709,356 passengers, only to drop to 208,930 travelers in 2016, according to data provided by Finavia.
See also: airBaltic and ITA Airways sign codeshare agreement.
Mari Nurminen, deputy director of Central and Eastern Finland Airports and director of Finavia’s Tampere-Pirkkala Airport exclaimed, «Seven new routes bring a wide variety of European cities closer to leisure and business travelers in the Tampere-Pirkkala area, which we can all be very happy about.»
Anna-Kaisa Ikonen, Mayor of Tampere, was enthusiastic about having flights to various destinations in Europe again. «Direct flights to Europe ensure the success and development of the Tampere metropolitan area. This is a great opportunity for our export industries, the event and experience economy, as well as for leisure passengers.»
Routes and frequencies
| Destination | Weekly flights | Start |
| Oslo (OSL), Norway | 3 Weekly flights | May 2 |
| Copenhague (CPH), Denmark | 3 Weekly flights | May 3 |
| Frankfurt (FRA), Germany | 3 Weekly flights | May 2 |
| Munich (MUC), Germany | 3 Weekly flights | May 2 |
| Málaga (AGP), Spain | 2 Weekly flights | May 1 |
| Rhodes (RHO), Greek | 2 Weekly flights | May 3 |
| Ámsterdam (AMS), Netherlands | 2 Weekly flights | June 1 |
| Riga (RIX), Latvia | 6 Weekly flights | Operating |
