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In the second quarter of the year, the number of passengers handled at Riga Airport grew by 17.4% as compared to the previous year, allowing Riga Airport rank second in the TOP 5 of European airports handling 5-15 mln passengers annually. According to the ACI data, the average number of passengers in the European airports has grown by 6% in the second quarter of the year.

Riga Airport witnessed growth also in July, when 739 403 passengers were served at Riga Airport, which is 14.4% more than in the same period last year. Moreover, the Airport saw a new monthly passenger record in July - for the first time in its history Riga Airport handled more than 700 000 passengers per month.

During the first seven months of the year, the number of passengers handled at Riga Airport grew by 17.5%, reaching 3.99 million passengers. Nearly 30% of them travelled in transfer using Riga Airport as a point of departure to travel to destinations elsewhere in the world. London, Moscow and Helsinki were the most popular destinations from Riga Airport in the first seven months of 2018.

The volume of cargo serviced at Riga Airport increased considerably - by almost 31%, reaching 16.3 thousand tons, while the number of flights grew by 14.3%, handling 47.8 thousand flights in the first seven months of the year.

“Riga Airport is the only airport in the Baltic countries, which, owing to its performance indicators, has been repeatedly recognised as one of the fastest growing European airports in 2018,” says Ilona Līce, Chairperson of the Board of Riga International Airport. “The figures for the first seven months of the year show that almost all of the airlines operating at Riga Airport have experienced growth. It concerns both low-cost airlines with a market share of 28% and direct passenger growth of 16%, and full-service airlines, as well as charter and business carriers. However, the national airline airBaltic remains the undisputed market leader; its passenger figures have grown by 20% and it has a market share of 54.3%,” says Līce.

The Irish low-cost airline Ryanair is the second largest passenger airline operating at Riga Airport; it carried 605.9 thousand passengers (+10.2%) in the first seven months and has a market share of 15.2%. In its turn, the Hungarian low-cost airline WizzAir with 355 thousand passengers carried (+21.1%) ranks third. WizzAir market share at Riga Airport accounts for nearly 9%.

Riga maintains a steady leader position among the Baltic airports, handling 44% of the total number of passengers and 52% of the total cargo volumes.

Riga International Airport is the largest air traffic hub in the Baltics. The 20 airlines operating at Riga Airport offer more than 70 destinations in the winter season and 100 in the summer season. In 2017, Riga Airport handled over 6 mдn passengers - 45% of the entire Baltic air passenger traffic.