Today, on 29 July, Riga International Airport welcomed its fifty-millionth passenger since the airport’s foundation – Ms Monta Skābarniece – who arrived at the airport on the flight of the Latvian national carrier airBaltic from Munich to Riga.
“The achievement of Riga Airport – handling of 50 million passengers – is very remarkable indeed. The number of passengers keeps growing; therefore, I wish you to reach the annual figure of 5 million passengers this year. I thank the airport personnel and management team as well as the biggest carrier operating at the airport – the national airline airBaltic – for providing vast travel opportunities from Riga,” said Anrijs Matīss, the Minister of Transport.
Andris Liepiņš, Chairman of the Board of SJSC Riga International Airport, pointed out: “Our joint effort and dedicated work has resulted in a steady growth of passengers handled by the airport, which by the end of 2015 is likely to help us reach the threshold of five million passengers per year and the next 50 million – in less than ten years to come.”
Martin Gaus, Executive Director of airBaltic: “We are glad that airBaltic jointly with its partners is able to offer attractive flights and provide convenient travel opportunities to Riga and other destinations in the Baltics, Europe, Scandinavia, the CIS and the Middle East.”
Riga International Airport greeted the 50-millionth passenger with a card of the Riga Airport privilege programme RIX Club and the Airport’s souvenirs. The national carrier airBaltic gave Monta Skābarniece a voucher for a flight in the Business Class, whereas the Airport’s business partners SIA TAV Latvia represented by Giray Colpanand AS Riga Airport Commercial Development represented by Linda Steinbach (ATU Duty Free) greeted the lucky traveller with special baskets of presents.
Riga International Airport in the first six months of 2015 has handled 2 377 503 passengers. The most popular destinations (cities) from Riga Airport this year are London, Moscow, Frankfurt, Oslo and Helsinki. The countries most frequently travelled to by the passengers from Riga are Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, Norway and Finland.
Strengthening its positions in the Baltic region, airBaltic in the summer of 2015 has opened flights on several new direct routes from Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius. airBaltic has put on its map of destinations Aalborg (Denmark), Dubrovnik (Croatia), Thessaloniki (Greece), the Island of Rhodes (Greece) and Pisa (Italy). The full list of flights offered by airBaltic is available on the airline’s website www.airBaltic.com.
airBaltic operates direct flights from Riga to 60 destinations. airBaltic offers convenient connections from Riga to the destinations in the airline’s route network in Scandinavia, Europe, Russia, the CIS and the Middle East. Additionally, airBaltic offers new direct flights from Tallinn and Vilnius.
Overall, 87 destinations can be reached from Riga Airport in the summer season.