airBaltic Expands Operations with New Base in the Canary Islands

airBaltic has found a new winter home for two of its Airbus A220-300 aircraft.

The Latvian airline will base two A220s at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Airport (LPA) during the upcoming winter season, flying to 10 destinations in Northern Europe and the Baltics from the Spanish airport.

airBaltic already has a significant presence at the neighboring island of Tenerife, to where it operates flights from several cities in the Baltics and Finland from Tenerife South airport (TFS).

The new base at Las Palmas will see service to airBaltic’s current three bases, Riga (Latvia), Vilnius (Lithuania), Tallinn (Estonia) and Tampere (Finland), as well as to Aalborg, Billund and Copenhagen (Denmark) and Oslo-Gardermoen and Bergen (Norway).

This will be the first time that airBaltic has launched direct scheduled services between Scandinavia (a large market for the Canarian tourism industry) and the Canary Islands without passing through its hubs in the Baltics.

The opening of the new base will not affect the rest of airBaltic’s network, as the airline continues with its fleet expansion program.

The Riga-based airline received three new A220s in the first half of 2023 alone and expects a further eight to be delivered before the end of the year. Ultimately airBaltic expects to increase its fleet to up to 80 aircraft in the coming years.