RIGA - Riga International Airport has announced its intention to go ahead with the next phase of its long term development plan, which when complete will increase its capacity to 12 million passengers a year. Airport board member Ervins Butkevics said construction of a new aircraft parking area and terminal building is ready to begin.
Making up the so-called fifth and sixth phases of the overall plan, the announced design and construction is expected to cost about 200 million lats (284 million euros).
The first of these phases calls for the construction of an aircraft parking facility and aircraft terminal extending 510 meters to the north of the existing terminal. This parking area will be able to hold up to 23 aircraft of various types. The second phase would see a new terminal that would provide state-of-the-art luggage handling services.
Butkevics said the airport wants to attract a joint venture partner ready to invest from 150-200 million euros in the airport's infrastructure. Riga Airport board chairman Krisjanis Peters said that 17 companies, both Latvian and foreign, have already applied under the announced tender.
Peters expects project completion to take between three-five years, after which Riga will become the largest airport in the Baltic Sea region behind Copenhagen, overtaking Helsinki and Oslo. Upon completion of both phases the airport will have quadrupled in size, covering 140,000 square meters of floor space.
Development of the announced phases effectively means the construction of a new airport, one in which it is planned that the resulting construction incorporates the existing buildings under a single roof, or 'architectural element', explains Peters, adding: "This project embodies our ambitions - the know-how, creative solutions and operational capacity that would put us on equal footing with Nordic and European airports."
The project provides for the upgrading of traffic junctions, communications systems and infrastructure, as well as the construction of a railway extension connecting the airport with Riga's center.
Latvia's architectural firm Arhis will head the effort. Chief architect Andris Kronbergs said that the main design emphasis in the new airport will be on glass roofing and inner walls that will create the impression of transparency and security. Norwegian engineering firm Aviaplan will lead the technical side of the project.
Airport management has worked on this project since 1999, the first phase attending to inbound flights, with the second phase in 2001 focused on reconstruction of the main terminal. The third phase saw the reconstruction of the passenger registration hall and in the fourth phase, in 2007, a non-Schengen terminal was built.
Riga has the largest airport in the Baltics by the number of passengers carried. In 2007, the airport served nearly 3.2 million travelers, up 26.7 percent from 2006. For the first four months in 2008 traffic was up 18.2 percent from the same period in 2007. The airport is a state-owned company.
