, the number of passengers arriving at and departing from the Riga International Airport accounted for 7.1 million, which is 15.7 % more than in 2017. The highest number of passengers arriving at and departing from Riga International Airport came from German airports (0.9 million passengers, up by 4.5 % over the year), followed by passengers from United Kingdom airports (0.8 million, drop of 1.7 %) and Russian airports (0.7 million, up by 17.1 %).
There was also double-digit growth in air freight with Riga International Airport receiving and shipping 26.3 thousand tonnes of cargo, which is 12.1 % more than in 2017.
Compared to 2017, in 2018 the volume of freight carried by land and via pipelines increased by 13.4 million tonnes or 11.7 % and freight turnover rose by 8.2 %.
The volume of freight carried by rail went up by 5.5 million tonnes or 12.5 % and freight turnover rose by 19 %. The volume of freights carried by road increased by 8.7 million tonnes or 12.8 %, whereas freight turnover stayed at the level recorded year before (rise of 0.2 %).
A notable exception to the growth trend was the fact that the volume of oil products transported via the main oil products pipeline fell by 21.3 % and freight turnover dropped by 21.4 %.
In 2018, the volume of freight transported to and from Latvian ports constituted 66.2 million tonnes, which is a rise of 6.9 %, compared to 2017. Freight turnover at the port of Riga comprised 36.4 million tonnes (increase of 8.2 %, compared to 2017), at the port of Ventspils 20.3 million tonnes (up by 1.5 %), at the port of Liepāja 7.5 million tonnes (up by 14.4 %), and at minor ports 1.9 million tonnes (up by 19.1 %).
While passenger numbers in all transport modes also increased, the growth was more modest: in 2018, the number of passengers carried by land passenger transport comprised 243.2 million people, which is 0.1 % more than in 2017.
The number of passengers carried by rail went up by 4.3 %, the number of passengers carried by regular bus traffic lines by 0.8 %, while that of passengers carried by urban electrified transport dropped by 1.9 %.
The number of passengers arrived at and departed from Latvian ports with ferries accounted for 1.1 million, which is 6.9 % more than in 2017.
