Off the wire
Malta sees biggest EU increase in duration of working life  • Belgian operator conducts 5G testing with China's Huawei  • Heavy snowfall causes traffic disruptions, blackouts in Ukraine  • Video of China's Wonders broadcast at NYC's Times Square  • Ghanaian president assures investors ahead of polls  • British FTSE 100 rises 0.34 pct on Monday  • Chinese embassy offers scholarship to 20 Kenyan students  • Suspected terrorist group discovered in St. Petersburg, eight people arrested  • Chinas Huawei asks for a better connected world at ITU Telecom World 2016  • Spanish PM Rajoy receives visit of Portuguese counterpart  
You are here:   Home

Riga Airport hopes to raise passenger numbers with expanded terminal

Xinhua, November 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Riga International Airport on Monday opened an extension of its passenger terminal, or the so called Northern Pier, which is expected to boost the airport's capacity and make it more attractive and convenient to air passengers, the airport's representatives informed.

According to information available on Riga Airport's website, the two-floor pier building comprises 19 new boarding gates, three air bridges, two new stores, five cafes, playgrounds for children and passenger lounges.

The airport's management hopes the expanded terminal will help boost the airport's passenger turnover by 40 percent in the next coming years.

Riga Airport's commercial director Arturs Saveljevs said on public radio Monday that the share of transit passengers traveling through the airport is expected to grow from the current 27 percent to 30 percent, which is necessary given Latvia's relatively small local population.

The airport's commercial director voiced hope that Riga might become a transport hub connecting the West and the East, but achieving this goal requires opening new routes, for instance, to destinations in CIS countries and China, as well as new airliners capable of performing long-distance flights.

Latvia's airBaltic national carrier is about to obtain such aircraft very soon, he added.

The representative of Riga International Airport also indicated that the airport received 5.16 million air passengers in 2015, but that their number might grow to 5.4 million this year. The airport's expanded area for non-Schengen transit passengers will allow raising annual passenger turnover to 7-10 million people. Endit