Riga Airport plans to handle around 7.4 million passengers this year

  • 2025-02-03
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA - Riga Airport plans to handle about 7.4 million passengers this year, Laila Odina, Chairman of the Board of Riga Airport, told LETA in an interview.

Thus, according to LETA's calculations, the number of passengers handled at the airport this year could grow by about 3.9 percent compared to 2024, while lagging behind the number of passengers handled before the pandemic - in 2019 - by about 5.1 percent.

She pointed out that this year's forecast is not quite the result of 2019, but that this January has started very positively.

At the same time, Odina said that the airport was very satisfied with last year's performance of 7.1 million passengers and that the financial targets had been met, as the airport was significantly more profitable than the year before. "The financial results are still being compiled, but the profit is much higher than it was in 2023. In terms of passenger numbers, we have also achieved what we had planned," said the airport manager.

She also said that the last months of 2024 - November and December - were particularly good, with the airport reaching 2019 levels. However, she added that by all indicators, Riga Airport had not yet fully returned to its pre-pandemic level, as the war in Ukraine had introduced adjustments.

"The closure of Russian airspace and the fact that there are no more flights to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus has reduced passenger numbers by around one million, both in terms of transit and direct passengers. Clearly, we cannot recover that quickly," said Odina.

She also pointed out that the number of transit passengers was 22 percent last year, down from around 30 percent in 2019. This decrease was due to the absence of flights to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, but was compensated by an increase in passengers to other new destinations, in particular to the Balkans, where passenger numbers have increased with the help of airBaltic.

At the same time, Odina noted that last year the average load factor was 79 percent, which is very high. "This shows that airlines are using their capacity more efficiently, with more passengers per plane, which is one of the reasons why maybe there are not so many airlines here and some have left, because capacity is a very important issue for all airlines at the moment," she said.

As reported, Riga Airport handled 7.12 million passengers last year, which is 7.4 percent more than in 2023. At the same time, the number of passengers handled at Riga Airport last year was 8.7 percent lower compared to the pre-Christmas period, or 2019.

Riga Airport is the largest air traffic hub in the Baltic states.