The number of passengers at Riga Airport decreased by 95% in February / Article / LSM.lv

In February 2021, the number of passengers served at Riga Airport has dropped to the lowest level since the resumption of flights in May last year – only 5% of last year’s number of passengers were served, according to operational data on the airport’s performance in February.

The airport informed the media in a statement that it served only 24,000 passengers in February, a decrease of 95.1% compared to last year. Among other things, the transit flow continues to decrease – the number of travelers who used Riga Airport as a transit center to go to other destinations was only 14% of the total number of passengers.

Before the pandemic, Riga Airport was the main transit hub in the Baltic region, accounting for a quarter of all passengers at Riga Airport.

In total, in the first two months of 2021, Riga Airport served 74.4 thousand passengers – by 92.7% less than in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Laila Odiņa, Chairman of the Board of Riga Airport, pointed out that the significant decrease in the number of passengers is mainly due to flight restrictions, which have been stricter in Latvia than elsewhere in Europe, including neighboring Lithuania and Estonia, reducing the competitiveness of Riga Airport. I am therefore pleased that the government has decided to allow flights to third countries, which will allow the airport to restore the flow of transit passengers and maintain the advantages of the region’s main air hub. “

The majority or almost 75% of passengers served at Riga Airport in February were carried by the national airline airBaltic, 6.7% by the German airline Lufthansa and the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair, and 3.6% by the Finnish airline Finnair ”And 1.9% to the low-cost Hungarian carrier Wizz Air.

In the first two months of the year, 2,825 aircraft took off and landed at Riga Airport – by 77.4% less than in the same period last year. The volume of passenger flights has decreased by 88.2%, while the number of cargo and other types of flights has increased – by 39.5% and 30.8%, respectively.

As passenger traffic continued to decline, the volume of cargo carried on passenger flights also decreased significantly – by 66.7%. Consequently, the total volume of cargo handled at Riga Airport has decreased by 23.8% this year, however, half as much cargo was transported by cargo aircraft as in the first two months of last year – the volume of such cargo has increased by 53.6%. In total, 3.1 thousand tons of cargo were handled at Riga Airport in the first two months of the year.

In January of this year, just over 50,000 passengers were served at Riga Airport alone – 90.4% fewer travelers than in 2020. In turn, in 2020, only 2.01 million passengers were served at Riga Airport, which is by 74.2% fewer travelers than a year earlier.

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