Latvian airline airBaltic has seen significant ancillary revenue growth in 2018 and said that adding checked baggage to the reservation was the most popular product among passengers in 2018.
Overall, the airline reported that it carried over two million pieces of checked baggage last year.
airBaltic senior vice president of revenue management, Eva Plakane said: “Buying the most affordable Basic class tickets and adding a baggage to the reservation is very popular among our passengers.
“At the same time, there is also a growing number of passengers choosing Premium class tickets, which provide additional flexibility and a free checked baggage.”
Among the most popular ancillary products, the biggest growth has been recorded for advanced seat reservations, which in 2018 generated a 26 per cent revenue increase compared to the previous year.
Most often passengers choose to reserve a window seat and passengers use the service most often on flights performed by the new Airbus A220-300 aircraft. Top destinations, on which passengers reserve seats, are London, Tallinn and Berlin.
airBaltic serves over 70 destinations from Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius, offering the largest variety of destinations and convenient connections via Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, the CIS and the Middle East.
For summer 2019, it will launch new direct routes from Riga to Dublin, Stuttgart and Lviv. In addition, next summer the airline has introduced three new destinations from Tallinn to Malaga, Brussels and Copenhagen.
