airBaltic to fly between Vilnius and Zurich, a route it operated on behalf of SWISS
airBaltic also announced flights from Riga to Warsaw and Gothenburg, and from Vilnius to Chisinau.
airBaltic has unveiled four new summer 2026 season routes, two each from Riga Airport (RIX) and Vilnius Airport (VNO), one of which it had been operating on behalf of Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS).
On December 16, 2025, airBaltic announced that in addition to the six new routes it added to its summer 2026 season schedule in September, it is going to launch four new itineraries from RIX and VNO.
From RIX, the Latvian airline, starting March 30, 2026, will begin flying to Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW), offering three weekly flights to its customers to the Polish capital. Cirium’s Diio Mi showed that currently, LOT Polish Airlines dominates the route, with up to three daily departures during the summer 2026 season, which feed the Polish carrier’s hub with traffic outside of WAW.
airBaltic will also seemingly replace Ryanair on flights from RIX to Gothenburg-Landvetter Airport (GOT). From April 13, 2026, it will have a twice-weekly service on the route, with Cirium’s Diio Mi showing that the Irish low-cost carrier, which had up to three weekly flights in 2025, has not planned any departures between RIX and GOT in 2026.
In October, Ryanair said that due to “rising access costs,” the airline will scale back its winter 2025/2026 season schedule at RIX, cutting seven international routes, which included flights to GOT.
Norwegian, another low-cost carrier, has scheduled two weekly departures between RIX and GOT between March 2026 and November 2026, with no data being available beyond the latter month yet.
From VNO, airBaltic will fly to two destinations, Chișinău International Airport (RMO) and Zurich Airport (ZRH). While VNO-RMO has not seen any scheduled services this decade, airBaltic has had flights from RIX to the Moldovan capital since May 2024.
The VNO-ZRH route has a certain irony to it. SWISS has been the sole airline flying between the two cities since April 2022, yet between April 2023 and October 2023, and March 2024 and March 2026, airBaltic has been operating some or all of the monthly departures on behalf of SWISS under a wet lease agreement.
However, Cirium’s Diio Mi showed that despite having been scheduled to operate more than 200 weekly flights on behalf of SWISS during the first three months of 2026, airBaltic has no wet lease plans beyond that month, possibly indicating that it will fully focus on flying its own routes with its own Airbus A220-300s during the peak summer season.
Lufthansa Group, the parent company of SWISS, has a 10% stake in the all-A220-300 operator.
Nevertheless, from May 3, 2026, airBaltic will offer three weekly flights between VNO and ZRH. So far, SWISS has kept its daily flights during the three summer months of 2026, and six weekly departures during the remainder of the summer season, per Cirium’s Diio Mi.
Mantas Vrubliauskas, the Vice President of Network Management at airBaltic, said that the four new routes, as well as the six announced in September, reflected “a clear focus on our customers and their travel needs.”
“By expanding our network and increasing seat capacity across all three Baltic capitals, we are offering more destinations, better connectivity, and greater flexibility, while continuing to strengthen the Baltic States’ connectivity with Europe and beyond.”
airBaltic concluded that during the upcoming summer 2026 season, it will have over 110 routes across its bases, a 9% increase in routes year-on-year (YoY). On November 30, it welcomed its 51st A220-300.
Rytis Beresnevicius
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