London is the top destination of passengers flying from Riga International Airport

10/02/2011

Last year 68 thousand flights were performed from Riga International Airport to 82 destinations, of which most popular were London, Oslo, Helsinki and Stockholm.

In 2010 London as a destination was chosen by 377 413 passengers or 16 percent more than in 2009. Comparison of last year’s most popular destinations shows a significant rise in the number of passengers flying to Oslo (by 42%), Moscow (by 41%), Helsinki (by 32%), and Frankfurt (by 32 %).

Germany was the country attracting the biggest number of air travellers in 2010 – 307 143 passengers in total. Last year regular passenger traffic was provided to seven cities in Germany: Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Bremen and Hannover.

Besides, compared with 2009, last year saw an almost 3.5-fold increase in the number of travellers flying from Riga International Airport to Turku (67 075 passengers), a 1.5 – fold increase – to Tartu (18 560 passengers), and Bergen (57 283 passengers), and a 1.4– fold increase – to Geneva (21 129 passengers).

In 2010, compared with 2009, passengers considerably less frequently travelled to such destinations as Amsterdam (36% less), Hurghada (28% less), and Vilnius (18% less).

Last year saw a 30% rise in transfer and transit passenger traffic at Riga International Airport: in total 1 757 532 such travellers were handled. Riga as a transit point was mostly chosen by the passengers travelling to Vilnius, Tallinn and Helsinki.

Similarly to the previous years, in the summer months of June, July and August more passengers were handled at Riga International Airport than during the rest of the year.

Notably, in 2010 Riga International airport welcomed 4 663 692 passengers or almost 0.6 million more than in 2009 when 4 066 854 travellers were welcomed. Last year six new carriers commenced operations at the airport and 12 new destinations were opened.

Most popular destinations in 2010
(Percentage of the total passenger traffic)