The Latvian national airline airBaltic has established airBaltic Training at Riga International Airport, Latvia, to provide commercial aviation training for flight crews.

airBaltic President and CEO Bertolt Flick: “After a profitable year 2009, airBaltic is rapidly expanding. airBaltic Training is crucial to meet the growing needs of airBaltic, and to generate additional revenue by providing flight crew training services to other airlines.”

Riga has a rich history as a centre of aviation training. It is conveniently located to provide commercial aviation training services to airline customers in both Europe and the CIS countries. The new airBaltic Training and simulator centre was established by taking over facilities and equipment of Oxford Aviation Training.
.
For 2009 airBaltic has announced 20 million EUR preliminary profit, and achieved 6% passenger growth to 2.75 million passengers. In 2010, airBaltic will open at least nine new direct routes from Riga, and has so far announced new destinations including Madrid, Belgrade, Vaasa, Umea, Beirut, Amman, and Manchester. The number of direct routes from Vilnius, announced by airBaltic over the past month, already total 10 – London, Paris, Munich, Berlin, Amsterdam, Rome, Hamburg, Manchester, Dublin, and Oslo.