On 31st October, 1990 – Director of Rīgas Autobusu Fabrika (RAF), a minibus assembly plant in Jelgava, signed the Order Nr. 990. It laid foundation for the establishment of RAF-AVIA, an air freight unit of the Factory. Its objective was to supply spare parts for the minibus production from all over the then vast USSR.

On 31st May, 1991 the first AN 26 was delivered from Kiev to Riga Airport where RAF-AVIA was based since its inception. Two months later on 19th August, 1991 the inaugural flight Riga-Nizhnij Novgorod-Riga took place.

Soon two more AN 26 joined RAF-AVIA’s fleet.

In December, 1994 RAF-AVIA unit was transformed into a joint-stock company with the Latvian State as one of the shareholders. The transformation followed general reorganization of the minibus factory into three independent joint-stock companies: RAF Assembly Line in Jelgava, ITC – Technical Engineering Centre in Riga and RAF-AVIA Airlines.

Commercial flights for other clients started to play a greater role in the airline’s operations.

In November, 1999 the privatization process that had begun in 1996 was completed: The Latvian State sold its shares and RAF-AVIA became a privately-owned joint-stock company.

As early as in 1998 RAF-AVIA already operated four AN 26 aircraft. Two years later a bigger aircraft AN 74 joined the fleet.

In 2005 and 2006 RAF-AVIA diversified its fleet by adding two SAAB 340 aircraft in a cargo modification. That laid basis for upgrading the company’s maintenance facilities and resulted in being certified to perform C-Checks not only for RAF-AVIA’s own SAABs, but for those of other airlines as well.

In 2015 we decided to extend our operations to passenger carriage being based on our cargo transportation experience. Couple months later first flight with our passenger Saab 340B aircraft was in the sky.

Today taking full advantage of the EU’s Free Sky policy the airline flies all over Europe – from Scandinavia to Southern Europe as well as to Northern Africa and the Middle East.