Customers can book hotels in addition to flights on airBaltic's new website airBaltictravel.com that launched last week.

RIGA — Latvian airline airBaltic began its first foray into hotel booking on Sept. 2, which patrons can order from their newly-launched airBaltictravel.com website.

The move is part of airBaltic’s ongoing horizontal expansion across the Latvia’s tourism industry, regardless of the crisis or the company’s financial issues.

The joint-stock company launched a taxi line last month to take arriving passengers from Riga International Airport and around Latvia’s capital city. airBaltic already offers car rental and shuttle service.

In a press release airBaltic President and CEO Bertolt Flick boasted that the country’s travel agencies feel threatened by his company’s expansion.

“Some time ago, Latvian travel agencies noticed the active expansion of airBaltic and presented us a gift — a cactus to symbolize airBaltic’s unfriendliness and threat to the business of travel agencies. By launching www.airBalticTravel.com and by starting to offer cheaper packages of flights and hotels, airBaltic is expanding even further into the field of travel agencies. Therefore, we expect at least one more cactus as a present from travel agencies. We would be even a bit disappointed not to receive one,” Flick announced.