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Riga airport expects record high number of passengers this year

Xinhua, September 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

Riga International Airport that serves the Latvian capital expects the number of passengers to reach a new record-high this year, beating the previous record of 5.1 million passengers a year, the airport's CEO, Andris Liepins, told LNT television.

"The total number of passengers increased 7 percent in the eight months of this year. By the end of this year we expect to beat the all-times record-high of 5.1 million passengers a year that was registered in 2011," he said.

The number of passengers is growing due to favorable fuel prices, increased competition among the airlines at the airport, higher income of potential passengers and the rising number of tourists, Liepins said.

The steepest growth in the number of passengers has been recorded for the routes in the Western direction -- to Germany, Britain and the Scandinavian countries while less people have been flying to Russia recently, the airport's CEO said.

In 2014, Riga airport served 4.814 million passengers, up 0.4 percent from 2013, and handled 65,819 flights and 32,984 tons of cargo.

Fully-owned by the Latvian state, Riga International Airport is the largest air traffic hub in the Baltic states. Enditem