Riga Airport leading in soft Baltic air cargo market

Aug 01, 2017 (newstodate): Air cargo volumes through Latvia's Riga Airport will expectedly rise significantly from the start of July 2017.

Behind the positive outloook is the start from July 1, 2017, of Turkish Cargo's freighter operation between Istanbul and Riga as its first Baltic freighter destination with two weekly Airbus A330-200F rotations to serve the market, in addition to the company's passenger flights between Istanbul and Riga since April 19, 2006.

Riga Airport now rightfully boasts of handling no less than 49 percent of all cargo through the Baltic regions' markets comprising Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, accruing to a total of 10,126 tonnes during the first half of 2017.

The cargo figures for H1, 2017, are, however, only 2.4 percent above last year's volumes at Riga Airport, and during the same period Estonia's Tallinn Airport saw its volumes down by 17 percent to 5,281 tonnes while Lithuania's Vilnius Airport handled only 5,048 tonnes after a 16,46 percent increase, compared to the same period in 2016.