Riga Airport will be by far the busiest in the Baltics Tuesday with airBaltic resuming a number of flights.
RIGA — Flights tentatively resumed in the Baltic states Tuesday morning, although most are still canceled as much of Europe’s airspace remains closed.
At 9 a.m. Latvia lifted any restrictions on air traffic, leaving the choice of whether to fly or not up to airlines. After running a test flight from Riga to Vilnius that did not sustain any damage, airBaltic is resuming a number of routes Tuesday, including Amsterdam, Stockholm, Rome, Moscow, Athens, Nice, Oslo, Vilnius, Kiev and Kaliningrad. airBaltic passengers with tickets from canceled flights can use their tickets for the next available flights to the same destination or obtain a refund.
Many other scheduled flights from Riga remain canceled, though, as air traffic restrictions in other destinations have not been lifted yet and other airlines decline to resume flights.
Likewise Estonia has removed restrictions on flying Tuesday morning, with a Lufthansa flight to Munich taking off early in the day. However, national carrier Estonian Air has not reinstated its flights yet, so the flight list is still almost all cancelations still.
Lithuanian airspace is now open, but although flights to Southern Europe took place on Monday, Tuesday’s flight schedule lists only cancellations thus far. In the meantime the Lithuanian National Road Carriers Association is offering to coordinate rides back for stranded Lithuanians with its 20,000 semi trucks.
“Our trucks are driven all over Europe and Russia and other Eastern countries. If countrymen are no longer able to return, we can help them. First, the contact details of members of our association and the location in which the citizens of our country are, are required,” Algimantas Kondrusevičius, the association president announced Tuesday.
Its unclear if the offer is for the cab or trailer or if payment will be needed.
Meanwhile the culprit of the chaos, ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano, remains over much of Europe and the volcano is continuing to erupt, albeit weaker.
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