airBaltic marks one year of passenger handling at Riga Airport

As of late November 2022, the Latvian airline airBaltic marked a one year anniversary, since establishing its own in-house full service passenger handling and flight coordinator divisions at Riga Airport. The new ground handling model has strengthened operational performance at the airline’s home base, also increasing both competitiveness and passenger satisfaction.​

Laura Vecvanaga-Puķīte, Senior Vice President Ground Operations and Customer Care at airBaltic, commented: “Recovery from the world’s deepest aviation crisis, caused by the pandemic, has given us opportunities to revise our products and services – in order to more productively focus on delivering the core brand values. Thus, a successful example is the takeover of the key ground handling processes in Riga with an average of 90 daily flight movements. It has shown an outstanding increase in performance and handling results, ensuring that airBaltic can assure a seamless customer service and act more efficiently on other operations. Moreover, the implementation of the new model has made 112 new jobs.” 

The passenger handling and flight coordinator divisions’ model has led to many advantages, such as: tailored airBalticcontrolled service from check-in to take-off and during the flight; new passenger service approach and excellent knowledge of the company’s product and service requirements; better control over handling processes; higher flexibility in decision making compared to outsourcing; improved cooperation and communication between departments, and other. Ground handling punctuality has significantly exceeded – from 82.6% to 97.5%. 

The cooperation with Riga Airport is strengthening the airBaltic’s world leading operational performance, as well as the ground handling service of Riga Airport.