Company briefs - 2011-08-11

Riga City Council wants to find a new company for the third stage of Dienvidu (Southern) Bridge construction, said Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs (Harmony Center), reports LETA. Riga City Council is bound by a 313.4 million lats (447.7 million euros) contract with the company Transport Systems. The Council was only able to allot 1.26 million lats for the third round of the construction of Dienvidu Bridge last year, while the amount necessary was 10 million lats, which is why the construction process was halted last year. According to Usakovs, the Council and Transport Systems have conflicting opinions about the cost of the third round of Dienvidu Bridge construction. If all goes well, the third round of construction of the bridge could be completed already next year.

Estonia’s aviation market grew 37.1 percent in the first quarter of 2011 in terms of passenger turnover, which was the fastest growth across Europe, the Estonian national airline Estonian Air says, reports LETA. Latvia is ranked 11th among the 34 European countries with a 13.8 percent increase.  According to anna.aero, the second largest increase in the number of passengers was registered in Iceland (23.7 percent), followed by Albania (23.1 percent), Serbia (20.1 percent), Finland (18 percent), and Lithuania (17.6 percent). A decrease in the number of passengers was recorded only in Slovakia (6.6 percent) and in Greece (7.2 percent). In the first half-year, the number of airlines’ passengers in Europe increased 63 million, which is 11 percent more that over the corresponding period last year.