Now serving 82 destinations, Riga International Airport (RIX) continues to grow rapidly, announcing a number of new routes this year and is also gearing up to open a new passenger terminal in 2013, raising passenger capacity from 4mppa to 12mppa.
Riga Airport saw a 21% month-on-month increase in traffic during February (272,013 passengers) and continues to report consistent growth. In January, numbers were up 16% from the same period last year.
In 2009, business traffic represented 30% of total passengers, according to the airport. Transfer traffic will be an important focus going forward, with a third of the gateway’s passengers transiting last year. The airport is looking to increase this to 50% in the medium- to long-term.
Importantly, Riga is a convenient hub connecting Scandinavia and the Baltic States with Russia, the CIS region and Far East.
Riga's Rapid Growth
Riga will open new routes this year from existing carriers, including:
airBaltic:
- Amman – June 1,
- Madrid – June 2,
- Manchester – June 2,
- Rovaniemi – May 31,
- Kuusamo – May 28,
- Beirut – June 2,
- Umea – March 29,
- Belgrade – May 5,
- Vaasa – March 29,
- Visby – June 4,
- Lulea – July 2
Ryanair:
- Oslo – March 28
Riga has also welcomed new carriers this year. Belavia added new service to Minsk on January 19 and Wizz Air started operations to Luton, Turku and Oslo Torp on March 13.
Other new carriers include TAROM to Bucharest, starting March 29, Aerosvit to Kiev from April 20 and City Airline to Gothenburg from April 19.
Lower Tariffs
A new tariff system for airlines came in effect on November 1 last year, putting Riga Airport on the map as an affordable capital city airport in Scandinavia and the Baltic States.
As part of the new system, the airport has slashed the cost for basic civil aviation services from €8.12 to €2.05, as well as the rate for passenger service, which is now €3.10 for each departing passenger compared with €12.18
Riga has also introduced a new transit and transfer passenger charge of €1 per passenger.
To get connected to the Riga Airport route development team or to learn more, Click here
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