This is an increase of 17% as compared to 2020; in comparison to 2019, the number of passengers dropped by 70%.
London, Tallinn, Frankfurt, Kiev and Amsterdam were the most popular destinations from Riga in 2021. Last year, the national airline airBaltic carried the largest share or 57 percent of passengers at Riga Airport. One-fifth or 21% of passengers were carried to and from Riga by the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair.
In 2021, 529.4 thousand or 22 percent of passengers used Riga Airport to travel to further destinations. In turn, the share of non-scheduled or charter flights at Riga Airport in 2021 accounted for 7 percent of all passenger traffic. For comparison, in 2019, their share was 4%.
The total volume of air cargo handled at Riga Airport last year reached 27.9 thousand tonnes, which is one-fifth more than in 2020. The result of 2019 with 27.3 thousand tonnes of air cargo handled was also exceeded by two percent. Due to the restrictions to limit the spread of the pandemic, the volume of cargo carried by passenger aircraft has halved, while the volume of cargo carried by cargo flights has increased by 70% as compared to 2019.
