RIX airport sees record passenger counts

2009-09-07
TBT Staff

RIGA- In August 2009 Riga International Airportwelcomed 428 thousand passengers, 8.9 percent more than in August 2008. It wasthe second month in the history of Riga Airport when the passengerturnover exceeded 400 thousand.

In the eight months of this year Riga International Airporthandled 2 679 369 passengers or 9.7 percent up from 2 443 045 passengers in thesame period of 2008.

Krisjanis Peters, Chairman of the Board of Riga International Airport, thuscomments on the eight month results:

"10 percent growth in passenger traffic atRiga International Airportis achieved thanks to the rising transit passenger flow. At present the shareof transit passengers exceeds 30 percent of the total passenger turnover. Theresidents of the neighbor states, the Nordic countries, Russia and the CIS increasingly choose Riga International Airport as a convenienttransit point for connected flights. As before, there is a balanced proportionof arriving and departing passengers which means that one half of thepassengers at Riga International airport arrive and the other half are thosedeparting."

"The opposite trend is observed in the travel habits of the Latvianpopulation. This year, compared with 2008, the number of the Latvian residentsusing RigaAirport has dropped by approximately 20percent. This declining trend is due to the economic situation in the countryand the falling purchasing power of the people," said Peters.

In August the airport handled 5 762 aircrafts or 7.7 percent up year onyear. In the eight months of 2009 39 736 aircrafts were handled which is 6.5percent more than in the same period of 2008 (37 320 aircrafts).

Cargo turnover at RigaInternationalAirportin August rose by 15 percent year on year reaching 721 tons. In the eightmonths of this year cargo turnover reached 5 655 tons or 16.4 percent more thanin the same period of 2008 when the airport handled 4 858 tons of cargo.

Currently the passengers from RigaInternationalAirportcan fly to 70 direct destinations. In 2009 ten new routes were opened: toTromso (Norway), Palanga and Kaunas (Lithuania), Linkoping (Sweden), Dushanbe(Tajikistan), Forli (Italy), Geneva (Switzerland), Tartu (Estonia), Turku(Finland) and Pskov (Russia).