easyJet announces expansion into the Baltics states - Tallinn and Riga

easyJet today announces that it is due to start services from the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia. Consumers in Tallinn and Riga will soon be benefiting from easyJet’s famously low fares to a range of destinations, saving hundreds of Euros on the fares offered by the traditional airlines.

The new routes are:

• Tallinn to Berlin Schönefeld - starts on 27 October
• Tallinn to London Stansted - starts on 1 November
• Riga to Berlin Schönefeld - starts on 18 November

Prices start from just 20.49 Euros including taxes and will be available for sale here at easyJet.com later this week.

These are easyJet’s first services to the Baltic states and have become possible since Estonia and Latvia joined the European Union on 1st May 2004. easyJet also operates a total of 24 services to the cities of Prague, Budapest, Ljubljana, Warsaw, Krakow and Bratislava making it the number one low-cost airline for Central and Eastern Europe.

These services are the result of easyJet’s recent airport tender to identify those European airports committed to offering consumers the best deal and prepared to work in partnership with easyJet.

These new routes will bring the easyJet network to 181 routes.

easyJet also announces that it will cease flying to Milan Linate from London Stansted from the end of October 2004. Despite the high-profile problems at Alitalia, services to Milan Linate continue to be highly constrained with no prospect of greater access to slots. Slots used by easyJet to fly to Stansted, London Gatwick and Paris Orly are all within an identical time period, which prevents easyJet from building a sufficiently competitive schedule. The lack of attractive slots at Milan leaves easyJet with no choice but to rationalise its twin services to Stansted and Gatwick. This means that the Gatwick and Paris Orly to Milan Linate services remain unchanged.

Ray Webster, easyJet Chief Executive, said:

"easyJet is clearly the low-cost leader in Central and Eastern Europe and these services strengthen that position significantly. These new services from Riga and Tallinn show how serious we are about expanding in the region and loyal travellers already used to easyJet's low fares, excellent service and great punctuality will be delighted to know that this is just the beginning. There is more to come!

"I know that these new easyJet destinations at the amazingly low prices on offer will prove exceptionally popular with all customers."