At the gate ‘Arrival 1’ passengers from the Member States of the Schengen Agreement will be served, while at ‘Arrival 2’ – passengers from the states that have not yet joined the Schengen Agreement.
At the gate of Departure ‘A’ and Departure ‘C’ passengers will be served heading for non-Schengen states, while at Departure ‘B’ – those flying to the Schengen Member States.
Starting from today there is a Border Guards Office located in sector ‘A’ and the first flight leaving Riga for a non-Schengen state compliant to the provisions of the Schengen Agreement took place to Kaliningrad at 10:30.
Already in October of the previous year Riga Airport had fulfilled all of the pre-conditions required and declared full readiness to join the Schengen Agreement zone. Out of the airports of nine European Union Member States joining the Schengen Agreement this year Riga Airport was recognised the second most ready airport in terms of fulfilment of the Schengen requirements. Krišjānis Peters, Chairman of the Board of Riga Airport points out that: ‘Implementation and enforcement in Riga Airport before the term of all the pre-conditions required for the Schengen Agreement was successful thanks to our employees and its excellent partnership with the State Border Guards Service. Joining of the Schengen Agreement by Latvia will be an impulse for development of tourism. For Riga Airport this would mean expressing interest by new airline companies, while for the passengers - a wider range of destinations and airline companies.’
Joining of the Schengen Agreement by Latvia will allow for a considerable rise in the number of passengers, including passengers in transit, which could double in accordance with the estimate of Riga Airport.
The Schengen Agreement provides that the population will be able to freely travel across any of the 24 Schengen Member States: Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, Iceland and Malta.