Home » World » The number of passengers served at Riga Airport has decreased by almost 70% :: Dienas Bizness

The number of passengers served at Riga Airport has decreased by almost 70% :: Dienas Bizness

In the first nine months of this year, only 1.8 million passengers were served at Riga Airport – only about a third of last year’s passenger volume, according to operational data on the airport’s performance.

Compared to the first nine months of last year, the number of passengers at Riga Airport has decreased by 69.6%.

In September, Riga Airport served 113.6 thousand passengers – 77 thousand less than in August. Compared to September 2019, the number of passengers has decreased by 85%.

“Although in September it was possible to travel from Riga Airport to 51 destinations – two destinations more than in August, most of the destinations were located in a high-risk area, from which passengers had to be self-contained when returning. This significantly reduced flight capacity,” Chairman of the Board Laila Odiņa.

The average aircraft load factor was 31% in September, significantly less than in August, when the load factor reached 57%.

The most popular destinations at Riga Airport in September were London, Oslo, Tallinn, Helsinki and Frankfurt, but the busiest aircraft went to Tbilisi, Cyprus and Manchester. Even in difficult conditions, the share of transfer passengers at Riga Airport remained high – travelers who used Riga Airport as a transfer point to further destinations accounted for 27% of the total number of passengers.

The majority or 60% of the passengers served in September were carried by the national airline airBaltic, 18% by the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair and 9% by the Hungarian low-cost carrier WizzAir.

In September, the airport handled 3,332 flights – almost 60% less than in September of the previous year. On the other hand, the number of flights has decreased by 56.3% and a total of 28,945 flights have taken place. Most – 2368 flights – were performed at Riga Airport by regular passenger carriers, 437 were business aviation flights, but 240 flights were performed by cargo carriers.

In September, 2148 tons of cargo were handled at Riga Airport – 6% more than in September 2019. In total, in the first nine months of 2020, more than 16 thousand tons of cargo were handled at Riga Airport.

In 2019, Riga Airport served more than 7.8 million passengers.

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