newstodate.aero

May 26, 2023 (newstodate): Riga Airport will again see Norwegian postponing its plans for establishing its base in 2023.
   In an interview on Latvia's national TV, Norwegian's VP Communications confirmed that Norwegian is now aiming at opening Riga Airport as a new base by summer 2024, instead, citing sustained delays in Boeing aircraft deliveries as the main reason.
   This is not, however, the first delay to Norwegian's plans, including those of the "old" Norwegian that aimed at setting up a base at Riga Airport already by mid-2016, with one Boeing 737-800 aircraft allocated for a start.
   Later, Norwegian aimed at establishing a new crew base and allocating three aircraft at Riga Airport from this summer to bolster its operations in Latvia, in close competition to airBaltic that has seen its transit potentials declining with the closure of the Russian and Belarus markets at a time when the revenues from business travelers is dipping, forcing the airline to focus instead on leisure traffic to tourist destinations to keep volumes up.
   Norwegian has been operating at Riga Airport since the first flight on November 10, 2005, and is now the airport's third-largest operator trailing only after airBaltic and Wizz Air; in 2022, Norwegian carried 3.2 percent of the passengers at Riga Airport, up 1.1 percentage points, y-o-y.
   In 2020, Norwegian set up a new service center in Riga, Norwegian Air Resources Latvia, to provide world-wide customer service support, instead of relying on outsourcing of activities in individual markets.