A joke before flying

Dear TBT,

On March 22 I flew from Riga to Rome on an Irish company Ryanair flight.  It was not the first time that I was in Riga International Airport, nor the first time that I used this low-cost carrier. Before I left, I had done all my ‘homework:’ booking my seat, printing out my boarding card, packing and weighing my two suitcases, making sure that my flight was alright and arriving at the airport on time.

Then, when I was at the check-in desk, came a surprise for me and the rest of the passengers. All the passengers on Ryanair had to pay a security surcharge before departure. The amount was not excessive, but was annoying: 4.92 lats before going through the security door. One doesn’t have lats any more at this point, if a simple foreigner or tourist.

Nothing of that appeared on the Ryanair Web site, advising on this rule, when booking tickets. The payments are accepted only in cash (lats) or by card, at the urgency of the moment.

It seems that the Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia decided some while ago not to finance the security function at Riga International Airport for the tickets bought after January 1. Is this really the image that the government and the carrier Ryanair want to offer to the international passengers traveling to Latvia?

Emilia Pastor
Spain