Riga Airport - tight transfer time

schemingbohemia

I'm flying to Finland next month and the best deal that suits at the moment is flying Air Baltic via Riga. The problem is the time between flights is very very tight. From looking here
http://www.airbaltic.com/public/tran...a_airport.html
it seems do-able for me but my main concern would be my suitcase getting onto the same flight. The time on the way out is 40 minutes and only 30 minutes on the way back (to be honest I'm not so worried about my bag missing the flight back).
Has anyone transferred in Riga successfully on such a short timescale?

dory

The airport is tiny.

If you get to the airport early, and ask to sit up front, and then be ready to run off the plane (although now that I think about it it's a bus so you have to wait for everyone..).
And be in a position to fly though security (no toothpaste in your innermost pocket) then you'll be on time.

The bitch of it is that you have to get a bus around the Shengan part of the airport, so you have to hope you get there on time to get the bus. But if you miss it you can hop up stairs and plead with them to let you run through the Shengan zone. It's literally just a corridor that we're not allowed walk though cause we're not flying to the Shengan zone. But they've always let me through when I've asked a few times.

In short, you'll be fine if your plane lands in time. But be quick about it!

It'd want to be a good bit of a saving for me to take them chance with this though. If you're saving €30 I'd get a flight with a longer stopover.

si_guru

Of course, if your 1st plane is more than 5 mins late you'll be stuck!

Hmm_Messiah

there are also separate depart lounges

and as mentioned - if its a very tight time I would be anxious re any delay

homerjay2005

why you need to check in a bag? dont do that and youve a chance, albeit a small one. you could be lucky for example and your plane arrives early and the other one departs late, but if right is right, if your plane lands on time, it willl take it about 20 minutes to get landed, taxi in and off the plane, through passport and then back out again. by that time, if you have to go through security again and to your other gate, your plan is already levelled off on its way to finland. pier d in dublin allows the people to go in and then back out the same gate, dont think many airports have that facility, you probably need to at least leave and then back through again.

ive been in riga airport 4 times, its not huge, but common sense says you need alot of luck to pull this out. i wouldnt do it personally, if you have time, go into riga, stay in franks hostel for 14euro a nite and catch the plane the day after...

its not worth the hassle.

schemingbohemia

Thanks everyone. In the end my dithering meant the prices via Riga had gone up over the weekend so I ended up going via Amsterdam with KLM and much more civilised transfer times.