Latvian airline airBaltic is starting two new routes from its Finnish base in Tampere (TMP), which opened last May. The network additions will increase the number of destinations served from the city to eight.

From May 2, the carrier will begin flying to Nice (NCE) in the south of France, operating twice a week using Airbus A220-300 aircraft. Service to Milan Malpensa (MXP) will open two days later, also operating twice a week with A220-300 equipment.

“In a few months we will be celebrating the first anniversary of our base in Tampere, and so far, the demand from Finnish passengers has met our expectations,” airBaltic CEO Martin Gauss said.

“We hope that this year the passenger demand will gradually grow even more, therefore we may launch additional new destinations to various business hubs and leisure destinations over time.”

Tampere, a city in southern Finland home to some 230,000 people, became the airline’s fourth base overall and the first outside its Baltic heartland when it opened last year.

AirBaltic has served the city from its Riga (RIX) hub since March 2017 and added seven more routes for the summer 2022 season to Amsterdam (AMS), Copenhagen (CPH), Frankfurt (FRA), Malaga (AGP), Munich (MUC), Oslo (OSL) and Rhodes (RHO).

The latest schedules data provided by OAG shows that Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Malaga, Munich, Rhodes and Riga will be offered during summer 2023, alongside the new Nice and Milan flights. This suggests that Frankfurt and Oslo will not return.

AirBaltic will be the sole operator of nonstop service from Tampere to both Nice and Milan. The Tampere-Milan Bergamo (BGY) market has been served by Ryanair in the past, but it last operated the route in November 2015.

During February 2023, airBaltic is scheduled to provide about 367,500 seats across its network—about 85% of its pre-pandemic capacity. The airline carried 3.3 million passengers in 2022, up by 105% compared with the previous 12 months.