Starting from Friday, 3 July, Norway’s low-cost airline Norwegian resumes regular international flights from and to Riga Airport. With the number of flights growing and new destinations opening, the number of passengers served at Riga Airport has grown by more than 400% in a month.
The first Norwegian flight from Riga will be to Norway’s capital Oslo, and then the airline’s aircraft will fly to this destination from Riga Airport twice a week – on Mondays and on Fridays.
With the number of flights gradually growing and the flight network expanding, Riga Airport has already served 55,445 passengers in July, i.e. the number of travellers has grown by 437% in a month. However, the decrease in the number of passengers served in June compared to June 2019 is still significant (92.7%).
In the first half of the present year, compared to the same period in 2019, the number of passengers served at Riga Airport has decreased by 62.9%. In the first six months of the year, the airport has served 1.3 million passengers.
Starting from next week, it will be possible to travel from Riga Airport to more than 40 destinations. Six airlines have already resumed regular international passenger flights from Riga. These are the national airline airBaltic, the German airline Lufthansa, the Finnish air operator Finnair, Ireland’s low-cost airline Ryanair, the Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air, and Norwegian. The complete list of planned destinations is available on the website www.flyfromriga.lv.
The airport reminds potential travellers that international passenger flights to Latvia are allowed from countries where the cumulative 14-day COVID-19 incidence per 100,000 residents is lower than 25, as well as from the countries included in the EC’s list of safe countries. The list of countries is available on the Latvian Centre for Disease Prevention and Control website, https://spkc.gov.lv/lv/tavai-veselibai/aktualitate-par-jauno-koronavi/valstu-saslimstibas-raditaji-a/, and is updated once a week on Fridays. The airport encourages passengers to carefully consider whether the trip is necessary, and before purchasing tickets, to make sure that the trip is not planned from/to a country in the group of banned countries.
The airport also reminds potential travellers that when planning a trip, passengers must carefully read the epidemiological safety requirements of both the airport and the airline, as well as local restrictions in the destination country. For example, the national airline airBaltic does not allow passengers whose body temperature exceeds 37.8°C on board their aircraft. The temperature is checked at the airport before the security control area.
When staying at Riga Airport, passengers must wear a face mask. Entrance to the terminal is only allowed for passengers with boarding passes. Those who wish to meet or accompany passengers at the terminal cannot. The airport also encourages passengers to observe distance where possible and to regularly wash and disinfect their hands. To help passengers follow these requirements, distancing marks and hand sanitisers are placed in the airport terminal.
The airport also reminds all that passengers returning to Latvia from countries where the 14-day cumulative number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents is between 15 and 25, must observe self-isolation for 14 days. In this case the traveller, when crossing the Latvian state border, must fill in a declaration where he/she undertakes to observe the self-isolation requirements and provides information regarding the location where the self-isolation requirements are going to be observed. Passengers can obtain and complete this form on the plane during their flight. The list of countries can be found on the Latvian Centre for Disease Prevention and Control website.
Riga Airport is a fast-growing Northern European air traffic hub. In 2019, Riga Airport served more than 7.8 million passengers. In the study by the company Cirium, Riga Airport is recognised as the 4th most punctual airport in the world in 2019 in the category of medium-sized airports.