Riga Airport passenger numbers continue to grow

Preliminary data on Airport performance in the first seven months of this year show that in July, Riga Airport handled half as many passengers as a month before.

In July, the Airport served 297.2 thousand passengers, which is almost 140 thousand more than a month before. Consequently, the number of passengers in July has reached 36% of the 2019 indicators.

Almost 703 thousand passengers were handled at Riga Airport in the first seven months of 2021, and the number of passengers is still 84% lower than in the pre-Covid-19 crisis period.

The flow of transit passengers at Riga Airport is also gradually recovering – in July, the share of travellers who chose Riga as their transfer point for further trips was 26%. In total, 162.5 thousand transit passengers were served at Riga Airport this year, accounting for 23% of the total number of passengers.

Of the total number of passengers, 60.5% were carried by the national airline airBaltic, 18.2% – by the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair, and 6% – by the Hungarian low-cost airline WizzAir. A total of 12 passenger carriers currently offer flights from Riga Airport.

As airlines expand their operations at Riga Airport, the route network is also expanding – this week, it is possible to travel from Riga to 86 destinations.

In July, the number of flights serviced at Riga Airport also increased – 4319 flights were handled, which is 1203 flights more than a month before. A total of 15.7 aircraft took off and landed at the Airport in the first seven months of this year, and the number of flights dropped by 68% in 2021 as compared to 2019. Of these, 9784 were passenger flights (-79% as compared to 2019), 1504 – cargo flights (+48% as compared to 2019), and 4474 – business aviation, military, technical and other types of flights (+ 110% as compared to 2019).

In July, 1924 tonnes of cargo were handled at Riga Airport; in the first seven months of 2021, a total of 14.3 thousand tonnes of cargo were handled at Riga Airport, which is 20% more than in the corresponding period of the previous year.