Riga Airport Passenger Figures Grow by 7.4%
In May this year, Riga International Airport handled over half a million passengers, which is an increase of 10.8% as compared to May 2016, reaching a new passenger traffic record in May.
During the first five months of the year, Riga Airport handled over 2.1 million passengers - 7.4% more than last year.
During the first five months of the year, more than 600 thousand passengers chose Riga Airport as an international air traffic hub to continue their journey to other destinations. In this period of time, transfer and transit passenger figures increased by 17.4%, reaching 28.3% of the total number of passengers. In May, 157 523 passengers chose Riga Airport as a transit point accounting for 29.8% of the total number of travellers. It is an increase of 17.7% in this group of passengers as compared to last May.
In the first five months, Riga Airport served 27 855 aircraft - almost 4% more than a year before. The cargo volumes grew by 2%, reaching 8.3 thousand tons.
Ilona Līce, Chairperson of the Board of Riga International Airport: "More than half a million passengers per month means that an average of 600 people cross Airport security control each hour, which is 15 to 20 thousand passengers a day. For this reason, the Airport is working on solutions to speed up its customer service; for example, in the nearest future, security control lines will be extended so that passengers could prepare for the security screening more conveniently. At the same time, we are working intensively on the design of the new, spacious passenger terminal, the construction of which will start in 2019 and which is expected to be completed in five years at the same time as RailBaltic railway station."
During the summer tourist season, in mornings and evenings an increased number of arriving and departing flights is expected at Riga Airport; therefore the Airport urges also those passengers who have checked in on-line and are travelling with hand luggage only to arrive at the Airport at least 2.5 hours before their flight. The Airport would like to remind that with the entry into force of the EU Regulation on passenger data inspection, for those passengers who are travelling to non-Schengen countries, border control may take longer than before, therefore passengers are kindly requested to go to their boarding gate in a timely manner.
As reported before, this summer flight season 89 destinations will be available to passengers travelling from Riga Airport. Altogether 17 carriers operate flights from Riga Airport: airBaltic, Ryanair, WizzAir, Aeroflot, SAS, Finnair, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Lufthansa, LOT Polish Airlines, Utair, Turkish Airlines, Ukraine International Airlines, RusLine, Uzbekistan Airways, Belavia, Ellinair and Smartlynx Airlines.
Riga International Airport is the largest air traffic hub in the Baltics. The 20 airlines operating at Riga Airport offer more than 60 destinations in the winter season and almost 90 in the summer season. In 2016, Riga Airport handled over 5.4 million passengers - nearly 45% of the entire Baltic air passenger traffic.