Germany’s flag-carrier Lufthansa and Latvian airline airBaltic have signed a new codeshare agreement designed to provide more travel options for passengers.

From March 28, Lufthansa will place its ‘LH’ code on two routes operated by airBaltic to Munich (MUC), from Riga (RIX) in Latvia and Vilnius (VNO) in Lithuania.

“Lufthansa is a strong connectivity provider globally, and we are pleased to strengthen our partnership and the air traffic ties between the Baltics, Germany and beyond,” airBaltic president and CEO Martin Gauss said.

“Germany is one of airBaltic’s key markets and we are looking forward to the partnership and through that offering better travel opportunities to the passengers around the world.”

AirBaltic currently offers a 3X-weekly service between RIX and MUC using Airbus A220-300 aircraft, the latest schedules provided by OAG Schedules Analyser show, while VNO-MUC is temporarily suspended.

During the upcoming summer season, RIX-MUC frequencies are expected to increase to 6X-weekly and flights between VNO and MUC are slated to resume late March, operating 2X-weekly. The airline will be the only operator of either route.

Heiko Heidusch, head of airline partnerships at Lufthansa, said the Baltic states were “a strong market for both business and leisure customers.” He added: “In airBaltic we have found a very reliable partner and together we can offer more possibilities to travel to the Baltic states via Munich.”

Data provided by Sabre Market Intelligence shows the number of passengers from RIX to MUC totaled 66,244 in 2019. About 28% of traffic was behind, 55% was local, 1.7% was bridge, and 15.3% of passengers flew to destinations beyond MUC.

From VNO to MUC, most of the traffic was local during the year, with 83% of the 14,010 passengers starting their journey in VNO and ending it in MUC.

Photo credit: airBaltic