Riga Airport handled 1.3 million passengers in the first quarter of the year

In January-March this year, Riga Airport handled 1.3 million passengers and 12.7 thousand flights, with the recovery indicators after the pandemic reaching the same level as on average in European airports, where the number of passengers served at the beginning of the year is still 12 percent behind the pre-pandemic time. 

Operational data on the performance indicators of Riga Airport show that in March 461 thousand passengers used Riga Airport, of which a fifth, or 19 %, used Riga as a transfer airport for their onward flights. A little more than half or 54 % of the passengers flew with the national airline "airBaltic", and 28 % – with the Irish low-cost airline "Ryanair". 4 555 flights were operated in March, of which 4 105 were passenger flights, 162 were cargo flights and 288 were other flights. 

As the European organization of the Airports Council International "ACI Europe" reported at the beginning of April, only two fifths of European airports have so far been able to return to the pre-pandemic passenger numbers or exceed them. These are mainly airports in typical holiday regions such as Portugal, Cyprus and Malta. Meanwhile, airports in Slovenia, Slovakia, Germany, the Czech Republic and Sweden are still handling almost half or a third fewer passengers than before the pandemic, which is mainly due to a combination of factors – both the war in Ukraine and the reduction or departure of low-cost airline routes, and others.