On Wednesday, 20 January, on the initiative of Riga Airport and with the participation of the busiest aviation industry companies the Aviation Association of Latvia (“the Association”) was founded.
“The establishment of a cooperation platform for the aviation industry was one of the airport’s goals which we started to actively pursue last year. In my opinion, a united professional organization will greatly contribute to stronger competitiveness of the Latvian aviation industry,” said Andris Liepiņš, chairman of the board of Riga International Airport.
More than 30 companies representing the Latvian aviation in various related service segments took part in the meeting for establishing of the Aviation Association of Latvia.
The goals set for the Association are as follows: strengthening of the values of Latvia’s aviation industry and supporting of the competitiveness of the related businesses in the local and international market, development of human resources for the aviation industry as well as the engagement of the industry companies in the planning processes of the national aviation policies.
The work of the Association is to be arranged in several aviation clusters:
• Passenger transportation and tourism;
• Aviation cargo services and infrastructure;
• Aircraft handling and business aviation;
• Aviation research and education;
• Aviation services, manufacture of systems and equipment;
• Regional aviation and airfields.
The Aviation Association of Latvia urges the aviation business community and experts to join forces for practical and economically advantageous cooperation, to agree the initiatives and concrete activities focussed on the strengthening of the members’ competitiveness and boosting of the volume of services throughout the entire value chain of the Latvian aviation. In the foundation meeting on Wednesday, the Operational Strategy of the Association for the Years 2016-2020 was adopted.
It should be remembered that the aviation industry plays a significant role in the development of Latvia’s economy. According to the survey conducted by Airport Council International, the aviation industry in Latvia supports 31 500 jobs and accounts for 3.3% of Latvia’s GDP. Moreover, aviation is the main factor promoting tourism, given that 50.3% of foreign tourists arrive in Latvia by air.