Riga Airport Handles Nearly 650 000 Passengers in July

23/11/2017

Preliminary data on Airport performance in the first seven months show that in July this year Riga International Airport handled almost 650 000 passengers.

Passenger traffic this July, compared to July last year, increased by 16.3%, reaching 647 117 passengers. Altogether 3.4 million passengers were serviced at the Airport during the first seven months of the year, which is 10.1% more than in 2016.

The majority - 74.1% had chosen full-service airlines operating at Riga Airport, while 25.9% were served by low-cost carriers.

Transit and transfer passenger traffic during the first seven months of 2017 grew by 18.2%, reaching 998.5 thousand passengers. In July, transit and transfer passengers accounted for 31% of the total number of travellers, which is an increase of 16.9% as compared to July 2016.

"The rapidly growing number of transfer and transit passengers, whose share in the total number of passengers in July amounted to more than a third, shows that Riga Airport is strengthening its position as an international air traffic hub chosen by passengers to travel to more remote destinations. The attraction of such passengers is facilitated by both the Airport's extensive route network and the amenities offered by the new terminal and state-of-the-art aerodrome infrastructure,” says Ilona Līce, Chairperson of the Board of Riga International Airport.

In the seven months of 2017, cargo traffic at Riga Airport has also grown by 9.7%. It was facilitated by both the first scheduled cargo route in the Baltics launched by Turkish Cargo from Istanbul, as well as by cargo services to and from Afghanistan provided for the support of foreign military forces in connection with the mission of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The number of flights handled at Riga Airport during the seven months increased by 6.7% amounting to 41 810 flights; 60.6% of them were operated by the national airline airBaltic.

As reported before, this summer season 89 destinations are available to passengers travelling from Riga Airport. Altogether 17 passenger carriers operate flights from Riga Airport: airBaltic, Ryanair, WizzAir, Aeroflot, SAS, Finnair, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Lufthansa, LOT Polish Airlines, Utair, Turkish Airlines, Ukraine International Airlines, RusLine, Uzbekistan Airways, Belavia, Ellinair and Smartlynx Airlines.

During the summer season, in mornings and evenings, an increased number of arriving and departing flights is expected at Riga Airport; therefore, the Airport urges also those passengers who have checked in on-line and are travelling with hand luggage only to arrive at the Airport at least 2.5 hours before their flight. The Airport would like to remind that with the entry into force of the EU Regulation on passenger data inspection, for those passengers who are travelling to non-Schengen countries, border control may take longer than before, therefore passengers are kindly requested to go to their boarding gate in a timely manner.

Riga International Airport is the largest air traffic hub in the Baltics. The 20 airlines operating at Riga Airport offer more than 60 destinations in the winter season and almost 90 in the summer season. In 2016, Riga Airport handled over 5.4 million passengers - nearly 45% of the entire Baltic air passenger traffic.