A way passengers could handle the luggage by themselves

Lately I came to a conclusion that Ryanair’s idea about passengers handling their own luggage is a genius not an insane idea. Look how I imagine it:
1. Passenger comes to an airport with piece of luggage and goes straight to the security check.
2. Before hand luggage scan and X-rays he puts his “checked-in” luggage on a special conveyor with goes to luggage scans.
3. Right after personal security check passenger goes to a baggage carousel where he gets his scanned and sealed (for instance wrapped in plastic) piece of luggage.
4. Passenger goes straight to the aircraft and gives his luggage to the baggage handler who checks weather the seal is undamaged and nothing has been taken out.
5. After landing passenger gets his piece of luggage right next to the airplane and goes to the city or next flight.
So we could forget about 1) missing luggage; 2) waiting for luggage delivery; 3) most of baggage handlers and handing systems; 5) check-in and check-in counters as ticket and ID checks can be done onboard; 6) gate agents as no bags could travel without owner; 7) all or most luggage restrictions.

Unlike Ryanair’s initial proposal - the luggage is sealed with allows to carry liquids and sharp items. On the other hand – the airports must be fully re-designed – so this system couldn’t be introduced quickly and without investments.

A Rescue Plan for Estonian Air

Estonian Air fleet consist of two B737-500 and two 737-300. The two Saab 340 props are operated by subsidiary Estonian Air Regional. While industry’s average passenger drop in 2009 is forecasted at 3.1% Estonian air passenger figures in October shrunk by massive 31.9 %. The main reason for such a dramatic drop is cuts on frequencies with caused fewer passengers and even more cuts again. Even the new routes (to increase the aircraft utilization) are opened on low frequencies. As a result Amsterdam and Brussels are served only three times a week; Moscow, Kiev, London, Munich only twice weekly. No service to Paris and Berlin will be provided during week examined (January 11-17, 2010). Reasonably served B737 middle-range destinations are Copenhagen (19x weekly), Stockholm (10x weekly + more flights by Estonian Air Regional) and Oslo (5x weekly).

Although the fleet was cut this year - the aircraft utilization stands only at 57% - with means one plane is still odd.
The management always refers to low passenger demand and hopes for arrival of the new CRJ900NG whose smaller capacity and economics will allow operating more frequently.

Instead of cutting capacities I advise to expand the market. Riga airport on therouteshop.com has announced lack of five weekly flights from Riga to Paris. Estonian Air from Tallinn could pick up passengers at Riga organizing the route TLL-RIX-CDG(or even better ORY)-RIX-TLL. airBaltic is concentrating on mid-day flights to Western destinations and we see less and less evening and morning departures from Riga to Brussels and since KLM left – no evening and morning flights to Amsterdam. This mean Riga have a gap in market for time-sensitive passengers to Brussels and Amsterdam and Estonian air could cover it.
It would be a bad idea for Estonian air to enter Riga-London (daily by airBaltic, 2x daily by Ryanair and coming 3x weekly by Wizz Air) and Riga-Berlin (up to 3x daily airBaltic) so planes to London and Berlin may stop at Palanga. Palanga-London is highly attractive route with no direct competition. Palanga – Berlin is bit less attractive but - although slower than London - would gain passengers.

The aircraft utilization would be: 1st to Copenhagen in morning, Berlin in midday, Copenhagen in evening; 2nd to Stockholm in morning, Oslo or Moscow in midday, Stockholm in evening; 3rd to Brussels and Paris (time of day depending on Brussels); 4th to Amsterdam and London (time of day depending on Amsterdam).
Such routing would decrease demand on Copenhagen so no midday flight needed. Munich, Kiev and other low frequency destinations most probably must be dropped.

Cutting Costs on Riga Northern Transport Corridor

Riga Northern Transport Corridor is the most ambitious and most car-centered project in Riga ever seen (http://www.ziemelukoridors.lv). The aim is to build a 27-30 km urban highway and a high bridge (or a tunnel) across river Daugava. Meanwhile the main goal is to provide better truck connections to the port. I propose to abandon the any plans for elaborating the car traffic within Northern Transport Corridor because:
1. Cutting travel times on car will encourage suburban sprawl thus damaging natural environment, making car-dependant communities and putting tax flow away from Riga;
2. The new development sites – with are patronized by the planners – will be car- not mass transit- based so encouraging even more sprawl and damaging current CBD (with needs activities to be added not to cut);
3. The traffic shifted to the Northern Transport Corridor will not lower the flow on existing streets and bridges because the spare capacity will be used by people now using public transport. The centre by-pass may be developed from the Southern and Salu bridges by further upgrading their access roads;
4. There will be small benefits from the project unless it is fully realized;
5. Sky-high expanses (no matter private of public funding) for massive construction and vast properties needed;
6. Damaged urban environment by noise and fragmentation.

I propose building a brand-new Truck-Only System (TOS) so boosting manufacturing and freight transit. TOS would consist of two lane road – fully or partially separated from city streets with off- and on- ramps near industrial activities and port facilities, other main streets. These roads would not have junctions with roads to or in residential areas. 

TOS have several pros over urban highway:
1. 2 (or - if reasonable - 1) lanes unlike 6 in highway, so less need for extra properties. See stage 4 – in the base variant it is located on unused railroad branches, even using the existing bridge over river Jugla;
2. Smaller speeds thus smaller radius thus higher use of existing public land and higher integration in the landscape;
3. Less traffic over river Daugava so ferry line, moveable bridge or transporter bridge would be enough;
4. Smaller junctions;
5. May be used for public transport and emergency vehicles;
6. Good usability if just few sections are built (see picture – stages in prioritized order)
7. Very easy pedestrian crossings – just zebra crossing or no marking at all.

By such a system the main goal – making truck traffic to port easier – will be reached and will have spare capacity for decades. The saved resources must be invested in public transport.

Riga to Frankfurt - Prices of LH, BT and FR

Riga to Frankfurt is the only route from Riga with three competing airlines. Although airBaltic sell some Lufthansa connections – RIX to FRA seems to be at battlefield. airBaltic started this route in September as an important business destination for the connecting traffic but will BT steel Riga to Frankfurt O&D traffic?

Booth LH and BT operate the route daily and with the same type of aircraft, but – as airBaltic 737-500 has more dense seating - BT’s weekly seat capacity is higher.
Ryanair use more distant Hahn airport with is specialized in “illegal” transfers and serving other surrounding communities rather than Frankfurt city. Since BT’s entrance FR is no longer the only alternative to LH high fares (see graph) so the demand may be down (no proof).

As Lufthansa sustain a complex fare system with one-way tickets about the same price of a round trip – the round trip fares in this research is divided by two. So even don’t try to book them – they are imaginary fares. Lufthansa ticket include 20kg of checked-in baggage, booth BT and FR don’t.
The price graph clearly indicates – Ryanair is the cheapest option, then comes airBaltic, then Lufthansa. Variation of LH’s prices is extreme - from €147 to €510. It seems obvious that Lufthansa want to bring traffic to their hub instead of wasting the seats for the short Riga to Frankfurt service by offering more reasonable fares.

Riga Back in 1700

A detailed map of Riga surroundings was drawn when Saxons blocked the town in 1700. The map is drawn in scale and shows features of Riga surroundings: roads, churches, windmills, pubs, manors and other elements.

Daugava river has overcame major transformations – the right riverbank has gone further in river (most notably upstream and downstream the city). All islands have new configurations. Just a few elements other than the inner town can be recognized in modern city:

1. A road to Vidzeme (the road to bottom right corner of the old map) is now Brīvības Street. The old location seems to be bit further to North. The place where the road went trough a palisade fence is now the busy section of Brīvības Street between Lāčplēša Street and Ģertrūdes Street (pictured).
2. Jesus church is clearly marked in the old map but the location of current church is different. The modern church (pictured) is already the 4th Jesus church building and was fininshed in 1822.
3. Pasture dam – now Pulkveža Brieža iela. It is an old dike built trough a wet pastureland. An alley on the dike is drawn in the map. No trees have survived till nowadays but Pulkveža Brieža Street (see picture) is still exactly at the same location. 

Estonian Air vs airBaltic on TLL – VNO

Tallinn to Vilnius route is the longest Baltic domestic route (530 km) and accounts for 7% scheduled seat capacity and for 10% departures on intra-Baltic aviation network. This route has suffered much from flyLAL bankruptcy (lost 2 daily departures) and from airBaltic Vilnius reductions (lost 2 more daily departures). Currently TLL-VNO is the only route where Estonian Air and airBaltic compete directly. As airBaltic has withdrawn morning an afternoon flights just six-weekly evening flights are left operated in an interesting pattern. Planes makes a triangle route RIX – TLL – VNO – RIX or vice versa departing 19:20 from booth Vilnius and Tallinn. Estonian Air is frequency leader on TLL – VNO but airBaltic offers more seats.

Estonian Air offers 2nd daily flights on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays while airBaltic fares are lower on all days in October and November. BT’s fares typically start at €67 while OV’s at €78.

Proposal for Riga: Intra-city Train Line Central Station – Ziemeļblāzma

It is now 20 years since Riga metropolitan project was stopped due to several problems. As the first big infrastructure project – the Southern Bridge – will be finished in few years the next project – the Northern Bridge – has came in spotlight of political discussions. Manville not a single transportation building for public transport is built and visions reach no further than a 800 m tram tunnel under Gaisa bridge. Yes – the vehicles goes under massive replacement program but no improvement in speed is made so far.

The City Development program states at least three possible fast transport systems: light rail (on tram basis), city trains (to split regional service from intra-city service) and train-tram or tram-train service (trains and trams may have common rail sections).  How to use these concepts?
Current ambitious port development leaves little hope that existing rail tracks could be used for frequent intra-city service so alternative solution must be found. Here is my concept of gradually increasing speed standards in Vecmīlgrāvis direction. This direction was chosen because Vecmīlgrāvis is a densely populated neighborhood far (9.3km) from the Centre. Now it is served by bus route with suffers from frequent delays.
Tram and railway tracks in Riga have almost the same gauge – 1520mm (trains) 1524mm (trams) - so the rolling stock is interchangeable. Meanwhile heavy rail have higher safety standards so no ordinary streetcars are allowed on train rails. Trams in Riga use 600V DC, but suburban trains 3kV DC – whith according to some unofficial information could be altered to 25 kV AC. 

Stage 1 – Expanding the Existing Tram Line No 5
This stage consists of building new heavy rail line (long and high platforms, high centenary voltage and advanced signaling) from Aldaris to Ziemeļblāzma. A 1.9 km tunnel must be built in Vecmīlgrāvis, an additional bridge over Mīlgrāvis and a new pair of tracks in section Mīlgrāvis – Aldaris. Four new stations are proposed – Aldaris, Jaunmīlgrāvis, Vecmīlgrāvis and Ziemeļblāzma. In station Aldaris trains switch to the existing tram line in direction to the centre. Dual power train sets must be used (but not too long to fit in city streets). Station Ziemeļblāzma could become terminal for busses to other neighborhoods (Mangaļi, Vecāķi, Jaunciems, Kalngale). Further North two city train branches are possible – to Vecāķi and Kalngale (where city trains could shared tracks with suburban trains) and to Mangaļi. Ziemeļblāzma city rail line would cut 3 min on evening trip (scheduled) from Central station to Ziemeļblāzma and make public transport much more reliable.

Stage 2 – Tunneling the City
The slowest part in Ziemeļblāzma route is Pētersala – Central station section as it goes through the densely built centre. Two tunneling options are provided – the red one is the straightest, the orange one goes under city districts with poor public transport accessibility. Booth lines would be useful but passengers to Ziemeļblāzma most probably prefer the straightest route (the red one). 3.15 km underground tunnel from Pētersala to Central market (Tirgus) include six stations with connection to street level and rail transport. At station Tirgus trains could continue ride on tram rails to Ķengarags. This tunnel would cut travel times from Central station to Ziemeļblāzma by 10 min.

Stage 3 – Connecting the Two HQ Sections
The missing section from Aldaris to Petersala could be build along existing railways. Station Sarkandaugava is proposed on a new bridge over Tilta street; station Dunte on a new flyover from Vecaķi railway to Krasta freight station. This section altogether will cut travel times to Ziemeļblāzma by 6 min.

The Goal - Reliable and Fast Service
If all stages are realized total travel times in Central station - Ziemļblāzma route will drop from current 39 min by evening bus to 20 min by modern train service with multimodal stations and excellent reliability. If all Tirgus – Ziemeļblāzma section is upgraded to heavy rail standard longer trainsets with single voltage power unit can be used.  
The new line will reduce need for suburban train stops within the city so no more then one stop in Saulkrasti direction must be sustained (most probably Sarkandaugava or Vecāķi will stay).

easyJet vs Estonian air on TLL - LON

Tallinn to London is one of the few routes out of the Baltic States with more than one carrier left. British easyJet flies to Stansted with the biggest frequency and capacity share leaving Estonia’s flag carrier Estonian air - with just two weekly flights to Gatwick - last. In end of August Estonian air will reduce capacity even more by putting their fresh 90-seated CRJ900 on the route. Already in October Estonian air frequency will be doubled to 4 weekly and weekly seating capacity will reach 360.

Cheapest one-way fares were found on each of the flights from June to August. In addition cheapest possible flight or flight combination was found on price comparison website momondo.com.

The results are clear – Estonian air tickets are about 40% more expensive than easyJet’s. Momondo.com returned interesting results – lowest fares offers easyJet, airBaltic or booth. airBaltic connections at RIX were cheapest in many cases in July and August but easyJets’s direct service in most cases in June, September and October. Estonian air and Czech airlines were cheapest in just few cases. Surprisingly but Finnair  - which operates feeder route to HEL -  offered the cheapest fare in no cases.

Worse frequencies and worse pricing makes serious concerns about profitability of Estonian air operations. They had put all hopes on introducing the new fuel-efficient CRJ’s so reducing operation costs. Lets hope that bringing frequency to four (1--45-7) will make the service more convenient and Estonian air will - at last - get on feet.

Rail Baltica - 1435mm or 1520mm Gauge?

The idea of connecting the Baltic rail system to the rest of Europe is circulating already for a decade. So far the main problem was considered gauge differences between Poland (1435mm) and the Baltic states (1520mm) and - at least politicians – see the idea of building a 1435mm gauge from the border of Poland further to the north reasonable. In European Parliament election 2009 just one political party did put a single phrase about Rail Baltica project in their program: ‘We are supporting this project because it will allow reaching Berlin within 10 hours from Riga by train’. I voted for them although I knew that an aircraft reaches Berlin in 1hour and 35minutes and their statement just proved that Rail Baltic - as presented so far - is not a runner.

Rail Range – 3.5 Hours
Projects in Europe show that most passengers prefer train rather than plane if travel time on train is no longer than 3 – 3.5h. The current record of system-wide average speed 279.4 km/h is set by French TGV. If we suppose that a new system with average speed of 280 km/h is built the maximum travel range of 980km is set. The further city reachable from Tallinn would be Warsaw (air service dropped in 2008); from Riga – Poznan (no direct service); from Kaunas and Vilnius – Berlin (no direct service, just connections at RIX, CPH, WAW). 
Building the Earth's best standard gauge high-speed rail line trough Poland and the Baltic states would result in attracting passengers from Warsaw to Vilnius, Kaunas, Riga and Tallinn  - whith all currently have a poor air service and few daily (2 to 3) coach service. Berlin - one of the busiest air routes out of RIX – would see no impact. More real average speed v=180 km/h would give feasible connections just from Warsaw to Kaunas and Riga. I strongly doubt Baltic States need such multi-billion project to ease connection in very limited city pairs in North – South axis.

Rail Baltica as Baltic Domestic System
Rather than spending billions for building totally new and separate 1435mm tracks I advise building 1520mm high-speed lines for local use. The biggest problem in the Baltic railways is lack of direct lines between capitals. Riga-Tallinn rail route take a long detour trough Tartu (30% longer than the direct highway); Riga-Vilnius take detour trough Šaulai and Kaunas with make the route 20% longer then the direct highways. I propose new Rail Baltica concept in 4 stages.

Stage 1: Jonava to Panavėžys. This line ads the missing connection from Panavėžys to Vilnius, Kaunas and further south – Marijampolė and Alytus. As Panavėžys is the 4th city in Lithuania considerable flows can be attracted to the two biggest cities in Lithuania.  
Stage 2: Panavėžys to Riga. This section includes optional stops at Pasvalys, Bauska and Iecava. As Riga is the biggest city in the region business and tourism traffic will be attracted and induced. If RIX south and/or north rail link is built - this line can beat BT’s feeder routes from VNO and KUN. Nonstop services from Lithuania are possible to Jūrmala, Ventspils, and Tartu. Stage 1 and 2 is to be the most important rail corridor in the Baltic region because it connects the most populous cities.
Stage 3: Tallinn to Pärnu. Existing rail service is extremely poor – serious upgrades and new sections are required. Pärnu can be connected to North-East region.
Stage 4: Riga to Pärnu. New line needed at least between Saulkrasti and Pärnu. This line would attract all Riga- Tallinn passenger traffic and could provide direct service from Tallinn to various cities in Latvia and Lithuania.

Flexible Solutions
Broad gauge Rail Baltica would not require extremely expensive new tracks in mayor cities but uses the existing infrastructure. High speed passenger lines differ from classic lines with bigger radii (~7km) of curves, advanced catenary and signaling systems. If a new line is built it must correspond to highest geometrical and track standards – the rest can be installed later and speed increased gradually. Train sets must go on two voltage standards (3kV DC in Riga and Tallinn; 25kV AC in Vilnius – Kaunas route and new high-speed lines) – alternatively - 3kV DC can be substituted with diesel generators. Furthermore - more expensive dual gauge train sets could still cross the Polish border and reach Warsaw.

Freight trains require smaller slope gradients but this seems not to be a problem in the flat terrain of the Baltic States. Freight must be reloaded regardless on location of reloading terminal – weather in Tallinn, Riga and Kaunas as in 1435mm proposal – or near the Polish border in case of 1520mm gauge tracks.

I hope the policy-makers will leave their ambition of building standard gauge railway across Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as it would be very unflexible and expensive. Intra-Baltic network can give bigger benefits with lower cost.

airBaltic RIX Base: 2007 and 2009

While Q1 GDP in the Baltic’s is falling by 18% in Latvia and by 14% and 15% in Lithuania and Estonia respectively airBaltic in May sees a stunning 33% increase in passenger numbers at Riga base made by transfer passengers. What are the factors that make people transfer though RIX more and more?

Small Airport - Short Transfers
Riga airport is so tiny that getting from one gate to another takes no more than a few minutes and bit longer if passport control needed. For airBaltic that allows selling tickets with transfer time of 25 minutes - with makes total flight time comparable - in some city pairs - with direct service in  and allows more flights to be connected. Lost baggage numbers are not published so far. In future airport wants to keep transfer times in the same level but it may harder to manage if new terminals is added.

More Convenient Schedule Attracts Thousands
In comparison with year 2007 schedule is re-arranged to allow selling more connecting flights especially to and from Northern Europe.

In 2007 most flights could be divided within 4 groups (see visuals). Group 1 included Baltic and Scandinavian capital and limited number of cities in Western Europe. Group 2 included mostly eastern cities and few in Western Europe. Group 3 included all Nordic and Baltic destinations and key European destinations. Group 4 included just Baku, Tbilisi, Dublin and Saint Petersburg. Few low-frequency vacation destinations were operated out of these groups. This schedule allowed transfers between Western Europe, Scandinavia and the Baltic states to cities in the East (Kiev, Minsk, Tbilisi etc).

Things have changed much since 2007 although the same 4 flight groups are still live. Group 1 is almost the same as in 2007. Group 2 has experienced serious change. Now it consists mostly of West and South Europe destinations with high frequencies. Group 3 is the same just expanded. Group 4 gained low-capacity flights to Tallinn and Vilnius because of the very last arrival at destination and the very first departure. Group 5 is a newcomer. As it allows transfers with group 2 - booth in morning and evening - that's whay it has a big importance. Group 5 includes high capacity flights to Vilnius, Tallinn, Helsinki (B737-500 or -300 instead of F50) and other cities. If operated to close airports this group requires long night stops (as it is now) but I see big opportunities for group 5 to attract services to airports further in east. Now most of pax seems rotating trough groups 1-2-3 and 2-5. The original concept of transfers from the East to the West has become secondary. Flights to central Asia and Caucasus all are with night stop and can be connected at lest to flight group 2. Flights to Eastern Europe are split between all groups and have no common policy.

Punctuality Increase and Better On/Offboard Service
In summer 2008 airBaltic faced a decrease of 15-minute on-time performance down to 75% in August. In autumn situation gradually became better and reached record-high 94.2% on-time performance in May 2009. Furthermore some feeder operations in group 4 now backup group 5 in case of flights from group 2 being late.
In May airBaltic launched a business lounge at RIX (in reality – took over the only existing one) to attract more high-end passengers. And - even better - a portable entertainment system is for rent onboard flights longer than 3 hours.

Conections of Long-Haul Flights
Current flight group 5 allows operations for up to 15h whith -  together with 45min turnaround - allows to reach airports within 5700km - with is not enough to reach airports in the Fare East or in North America. For longer flights exist two options: 1st – to depart after group 2 arrives and arrive before groups 3 and 5 depart. This will work well if groups 3 and 5 are upgraded with second daily flights to West Europe destinations (MUC, CDG, AMS etc); 2nd option – departure after groups 1 and 5 arrive and return next day before group 2 depart. This requires upgrades of groups 1 and - again - 5. As group 3 is currently more developed than group 1 - first option is more reasonable. Booth options gives range of 8500km with is enough to reach all Asian cities (except Singapore) and US East coast cities.

If in an economic slump we see such increase in BT RIX traffic than what to expect at upturn? BTW - rumors are going that Warsaw and Pskov will be next destinations announced.

Proposal: a High-rise District in Liepāja

Liepāja is a town in the West of Latvia famous with the wonderful beach, cultural heritage and charming historical low-rise architecture. The population is 85.000 and keeps dropping. So far policy-makers have worked to fit all development projects in the existing environment and hadn’t done anything to encourage modern high-rise development. Liepāja doesn’t have an impressing historical skyline but have a chance to get modern one. I propose a way to convert existing port and waste territories south of city channel (see map) to a modern skyscraper cluster. This area is on edge of the historical old town, next to the beach and seaside park.

The Key - New Rail Terminus

Current railway station in Liepāja is located 1.8 km from central (Rožu) square - booth are connected by the only tram line in the town. Due to train shortage existing intercity train service is ridiculous - just one daily train to Riga. If more trains are put on service – especially tilting ones – rail connection to Riga and Jelgava will easily beat the coach service. As Liepāja is a seaside resort – seasonal rail services may be established from all biggest Baltic cities.

A new railway link and terminus are essential to create a motive for high-density land use in the area. I propose building an underground station in the site of the old stadium and to connect it to existing railway through tunnel under the city channel. A new tram line to the center must be built to provide accessibility for the rest of city. It is worth adding tram lines to Ezerkrasts, Karosta, and a higher standard line through airport to Grobiņa.

Change Through Adding

Lot A is the very first to be developed because the railway terminal construction underground. All historical fortifications and pounds must be preserved but the rest can be built-up with no height or density restrictions (as higher as better). In lots A and B all buildings (and functions) must be preserved as long as possible. New high-rise buildings must be built in gaps between existing ones. Different functions must be left together - retail, residential, hotels, offices, fish warehouses and docks – to makes the urban life more attractive. Lot C must be developed later than lot B to make the more important development of lot B faster.

Benefits for Almost all Districts

Seaside parks and the channel waterfront would strongly benefit from the proposed development because of the increased number of visitors. The influence to historical center is unclear – it may loose some services but the improved accessibility probably will outweigh losses. The current train station area will face problems only if buss station is moved together with train station to the new district. All the other areas of the town and region would see strong benefit from tourism and other business. Building a new tunelled rail link and station may seem too ambitious for Liepāja, but I believe it will induce even more rail trafic and bring the city to a new level of development.

Skyways vs airBaltic on VNO-CPH

Skyways launched a Fokker 50 VNO-CPH-VNO service on weekdays starting 2 June but already in 4 June announced service cancellation between 29 June and 9 August. Flights in August will be operated twice weekly (Mondays and Fridays) and starting from 24 August the service is planned to became five times weekly again. Vilnius – Copenhagen route is already served twice daily by airBaltic with 120-seated B737-500. airBaltic is still unbeaten frequency (74%) and seating capacity (87%) leader. Why Skyways have faced problems with this route after just two days of operation?

Price Leader in June – Skyways, in September - airBaltic

Skyways offer the best price almost all days in June. The highest BT’s fare (€564) was found 7 June when just two business-class tickets were left. As Skyways is a newcomer (although information about it was circulating in media for a longer time) the bookings of June are no fully balanced. Skyways ticked prices include 20kg checked-in baggage but airBaltic luggage fare of €10 is not included in compared prices if the cheapest available ticked is in economy class.

September is the next month when Skyways plan full operation on this route. As the graph shows BT typically offers lower price than Skyways constant €132 which is almost double of June’s lowest €72. airBaltic’s one-way price varies between €46 on few dates to €211 in 13 September.

Fare Levels: Skyways Shocks
In order to inspect availability of lowest fares different numbers of passengers was entered in booth booking systems. This makes possible to find prices of up to 9 next tickets. A date (8 September) was selected to ensure that a very limited number of bookings are done. Skyways booking system showed a bad surprise – just seven tickets still available for €132 – 8th ticket cost €453 which is about the same level of airBaltic’s business-class tickets. The same fare was found on many other dates (but not all) in June, August, September and October. In the same time airBaltic offer 5 tickets for €85 (evening flight) and the rest for €114.

If Skyways €453 sky-high tickets (about 40 out of 50) are not just an error in the booking system or in my analysis I see no success in their VNO-CPH service. The Skyways prices in June show that ticket fares are grouped in more than just two fare levels so hope exist that autumn prices will be reloaded and maybe corrected to achieve smaller average fare. Still airBaltic have several more advantages in this route: a codeshare with SAS an other companies from Copenhagen; better service frequencies and more convenient flight times; possibility to book VNO-RIX-CPH or just RIX-CPH if needed. I advise Skyways to consider switching VNO-CPH capacity to some other Baltic or Scandinavian city - PLQ, KUR, LPX, VNT, TAY, EPU, VBY or other – and concentrating on local tourism.