RIGA - December statistics released last week have shown once again that the air travel market is changing rapidly in Latvia, with discount airlines taking a larger segment of the booming passenger market.
AirBaltic remains the dominant player, handling 51 percent of all air travelers at Riga International Airport, or 530,900 passengers, last year. In December, however, the airline's share was 40 percent, or 42,382 passengers, while Ryanair shuttled 20,837 during the month, its best indicator since launching flights in October.
Though the discount Irish airline only managed a 4 percent share for the entire year, its 20 percent haul in December indicated a major realignment of forces in the industry was set to take place this year.
For its part, airBaltic remains bullish, as its passenger turnover improved 75 percent year-on-year, in large part thanks to launching flights from Vilnius International Airport. Describing last year's results as "stable growth," company President Bertold Flick commented that the company succeeded in boosting numbers mainly due to its price policy and by expanding its route network. "The operation indicators in 2004 were also boosted by opening a base in Vilnius, from which at present direct flights are operated to 11 destinations in Europe," he said.
The company's load factor dropped last year by 10 percentage points to 51 percent and was 49 percent in December. The company said this was due to increased capacity of the airline's fleet, which now includes several Boeings.
Nor does Flick fear the discount airlines. "We started introducing one-way ticket structure starting from low fares already in 2003. By 2004 all airBaltic tickets, except Moscow and Kiev, were one-way fare bases," he told The Baltic Times.
"The fares are set to be competitive not only with other airlines but also with other modes of transportation 's like road, sea or railway. At the moment we are offering by far more flight destinations and frequencies in or out of the Baltics and serving wider range of people than any other airline," he said.
Second among airlines flying to Riga was Latcharter, which handled 81,631 passengers, or 8 percent of the market. Germany's Lufthansa was third with 74,250 passengers (7 percent) and Czech Airlines fourth with 61,765 passengers. Finnair and KLM both had 5 percent of the market, while Russia's Aeroflot had 2 percent.
Ryanair was eighth over the year, though it was in the market for less than three months.
EasyJet, another discount airline that recently entered the market, managed to win 5 percent of the market in December with its one route to Berlin.
All in all, Riga International Airport served 1,060,426 passengers in 2004, a 49 percent increase year-on-year. December turnover was the highest over the year 's 95.4 percent 's with 105,179 passengers served.
Transport Ministry officials have projected passenger turnover to double this year to 2 million people.
