Company briefs - 2009-11-04

  • 2009-11-04
Passenger traffic at Riga International Airport for the first nine months this year reached 3,064,900, a 9.2 percent increase from the same period last year, reports LETA. National airline airBaltic carried 2,049,300 travelers, a 29.2 percent increase against the year earlier period. Foreign-owned airlines for the period registered a 16.8 percent drop in traffic. The largest traffic was to German airports, with 436,400 passengers carried, a 1.3 percent increase. Passenger numbers with UK airports totaled 340,300 passengers, a 6.7 percent drop year-on-year. Travelers through Finland totaled 205,200, a 15.5 percent year-to-year increase.

Sicor Biotech, Traidenis and Baltic Amadeus Infrastrukturos Paslaugos received Knowledge Economy Companies 2009 awards, presented by Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite. "With these awards, we want to show that the knowledge and the ability to use it guarantee the progress and success of an enterprise. The award-winning companies are successfully expanding their activities in spite of the global crisis," said Knowledge Economy Forum Board Chairman Kestutis Jasiunas.  "Lithuania has the potential to develop and deploy advanced technologies. The achievements of young companies is a great example of how, even having no significant resources or support, promising high-tech business can be developed," said Forum Director Edgaras Leichteris.

In this year's third quarter, construction costs in Latvia dropped by an average 14.4 percent, compared with the same period last year, reports LETA. The steepest plunge was observed in construction worker wages - down by 25.4 percent, and in the cost of construction materials, down by 11.1 percent. The decrease in costs for construction of transport facilities, and the drop in costs for industrial, agricultural and trade buildings had the greatest overall influence. Costs dropped 3.5 percent in the first quarter and 10.8 percent in the second quarter year-on-year. Compared with August, costs in September fell by 2.1 percent.