Latvian Airline Goes Against Highway Robbers

The Latvian airline airBaltic is seriously considering the establishment of a taxi company so as to improve the quality of this particular service, which is so important to the tourism sector in Riga. The company would hope to ensure accountable and justified services for the city's residents and guests, not least in terms of eliminating fraud from the process.

Previously in a letter to Riga Mayor Janis Birks and the director of the Riga City Council's Transport Department, airBaltic pointed out that there were problems in the area of taxi services, but no answer from government officials has been received. This indicates laziness and a limited desire to normalise this area of activity in the city.

airBaltic believes that the dishonesty of existing taxi service providers and the fact that they do tend to defraud their clients means that there is room for another participant in the market. "Our experience shows that taxi service providers in Riga are often highway robbers, and they charge too much for their services. That's why we are thinking about offering a chance to our passengers and to other guests and residents of Riga to always pay an appropriate tariff when they take airBaltic taxis. I think that it is high time to bring greater order to this sector in Latvia, because otherwise it will irreversibly damage people's views about how Latvia treats tourists who arrive in the country," says airBaltic president and CEO Bertolt Flick.

airBaltic and the Islande Hotel are already offering Airport Express bus services to the airline's clients, and there are also opportunity to rent car.