Riga Flights

i really passonatly do feel i need to blow there trumpet after the spout of bad press.
Facts about ryan air.
1. yes, make sure you read the small print, this being your baggage allowence, if your going for a weekend or something and just taking 3 or 4 change of clothes, take a small rucksack, with the weight being under 10 kg, there is no charge!, we paid 4 pence return for 2, plus £40 taxes, how can you moan at that!.

2. you get into the aircraft, yes it is bland, no tv, suspicious stains on seats, but what do you want, for an extra £200 go and fly BA,
3. staff were more than helpfull, example, on our way home, one of the air stewards even offered to take us from the airport to the bus station in liverpool, would you ever get that from ba or brittania, i doubt it, my personal views of them is this, there a no nonsence carrier, taking you from point a to point b, nothing more, nothing less, hence there price, hence there the most punctual airline in europe (they dont tell you that on the news)

ryan air would be my number one choice to travel with again.

If like us you chose to fly into Riga then you will land at the New international Airport, Only about 10k from the centre of Riga and well served by an airport bus. We caught a taxi into the city and it worked out at around £15, Taxi fares did seem to vary as some of our group hailed a taxi for their return journey and it only cost the £8 -- So agree your fare before setting off !!
The Airport is Excellent, All facilities, Good shops and not so expensive to buy a meal or a drink !!

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Riga Internation Airport (RIX) has a decent website with information about arrivals/departures as well as details about the airport itself.
It is the largest airport in the Baltic states and was renovated in 2006 (Riga's 800th anniversary)
An aviation museum is located just outside the airport.
Visits can be pre-arranged, however, you do get a good view of some the exhibits from your plane!

I flew Ryan Air from Liverpool to Riga for quite a reasonable price.
Flight arrived on time in but the plane was a bit dirty with chewing gum stuck to the back of the plastic seats.
Remember however that however cheap the price looks, you have to add on the taxes etc. Ryan Air also have a few hidden costs. You'll be looking at around £60 for a return trip.
That said, it is still cheap if not always cheerful (but lets not get in to Ryan Air bashing I'll leave that to Skytrax (http://www.airlinequality.com/))

Flight is roughly 3 hours and the majority of it is over water but I was lucky enough to fly over a Red Arrows training session

Riga has a very modern airport that serves as the main gateway to the Baltics!
Air Baltic is a very good LOW COST airline that connects Scandinavia, London and Ireland to Eastern European destinations including Ukraine, Crimea and Istanbul! Recommended

Riga has it's own international airport. The airport is half an hour from the citycentre by bus. It's a rather small airport but very convenient and easy to get around at.
Scheduled services are plentifull, Air Baltic operates to most mayor European destinations. Prices are very competitive.
Ryanair and Easyjet also operate into Riga. Easyjet has scheduled services to Berlin and Ryanair serves, Frankfurt-Hahn, Tampere, Stockholm, London Stansted, Liverpool and Dublin.
Connections to Eastern-Europe (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine) are available as well. Long-Range traffic is limited to New York and Tashkent. Several European airlines fly into Riga. With Latvia getting a real hotspot the airport is expanding very rapidly and connections are increasing all the time, the amount of passengers almost doubled over the last year.

You can travel by plane from a lot of european cities to Riga. The homecarrier AirBaltic connects Riga with a lot of european cities and Istanbul in Turkey. Also the low cost Airlines Ryanair (since November 2004) and Easyjet provide cheep flights to and from Riga. The Airport has a brand new terminal and is very convinient. With a public bus line in front of the parking place you can get in 25 min to the City Center. Bus line 22.

We flew to Riga from Tampere with Ryanair, which one of the few budget airlines operating also from Finland. If you're lucky you may get your return tickets for as little as 40 euros, which is really cheap. We didn't get our tickets quite that cheap, but got a very nice price still. I must admit we had some doubts about using a budget airline but everything went well. We were even ahead of schedule both ways and I hear this is pretty common. With their affordable prices, we'll surely use them again. I just wish they would have direct flights to more destinations from Finland.