Ministry, airBaltic prepared to make investments in Liepaja airport

  • 2007-05-16
  • By TBT staff
RIGA - Liepaja, home of Latvia's third largest port, received a major boost last week after the launch of flights to Riga and an announcement by Transport Minister Ainars Slesers that the government was prepared to invest tens of millions of euros in developing the local airport.

The city, which 20 years ago was a closed Soviet naval post, will also see international traffic after airBaltic, the national air carrier, launches flights to Copenhagen and Hamburg next month.
Airport director Aldis Murnieks, speaking at the inaugural Riga-Liepaja flight on May 11, said that the terminal would need some 21 million lats (30 million euros) in development funds, according to a project compiled by Rambol, a Danish firm.
The project calls for renovating and extending the runway to 2,300 meters, building a new passenger terminal and purchasing new rescue service equipment.

The government has already issued 1 million lats from privatization funds to cover costs related to the launch of the Riga-Liepaja flight, and Slesers told journalists in Liepaja that the ministry, which is trying to transform Riga into the premier East European flight hub, was prepared to invest even more in the airport's future.
The flight to Liepaja is currently airBaltic's only domestic flight, but starting June 9 the airline, which is 53 percent owned by the Latvian state, will offer flights to Copenhagen and Hamburg, the first international routes from a Latvian terminal other than Riga's.

"Adding two international destinations to the recently opened domestic flights is a clear sign that Liepaja is developing into an important airport," airBaltic CEO Bertolt Flick said in a statement.
"Taking into account airBaltic's low fares, Liepaja will be a strong competitor for other regional airports like Palanga," he added.
Murnieks said the construction of a temporary arrival terminal will soon be completed, while there are plans to expand the existing terminal and build parking lots.
The Riga-Liejapa flight will be offered twice daily (on business days) and be carried out by Fokker 50 aircraft. The flight will last 40 minutes.

Slesers said that the Transport Minister intends to develop two other regional airports 's Ventspils and Daugavpils 's and 20 million euros have been earmarked for the program.
AirBaltic, in which Scandi-navia's SAS owns a 47.2 percent stake, recently announced that it handled 338,000 passengers in the first quarter of 2007, up 28 percent year-on-year. Last year the airline served more than 1.4 million passengers, which was a 37 percent increase over 2005's result.