newstodate.aero
Oct 07, 2011 (newstodate): Latvia's Riga Airport urgently needs construction of a new passenger terminal to cope with passenger volumes that already exceeded the technical design capacity of the existing facilities in 2007.
The Latvian minister of transportation has now reportedly confirmed that the state will indeed carry on with a project for construction of a new passenger terminal to be commissioned by 2014 and funded by state budgets for 2012.
Included in the project is separation of Schengen/non-Schengen traffic, introduction of an automated baggage sorting system to replace the current manual handling, and passenger boarding gates facilitating larger aircraft.
Plans for a new terminal have, however, been long in the waiting, and the road has had many twists and turns.
In March 2009, the Turkish construction company TAV won the tender for developing Latvia's state-owned Riga Airport including a new airport terminal and a second runway by the middle of 2010, aiming at completing the first stage June, 2012.
In September 2009, Riga Airport however recommended to the Latvian ministry of transport that the tender process with TAV be discontinued.
In June 2010, airBaltic and the Turkish company TAV Airports Holding A.S. set up a Joint Venture for the development, construction and operation of a new passenger terminal at Riga International Airport, and a tender for the architectural design of the terminal was opened.
The state, however, never agreed to this venture that remained on the shelf.
In 2010 the airport handled a total of 4.6 mio passengers, expecting to exceed five mio passengers in 2011
The Latvian minister of transportation has now reportedly confirmed that the state will indeed carry on with a project for construction of a new passenger terminal to be commissioned by 2014 and funded by state budgets for 2012.
Included in the project is separation of Schengen/non-Schengen traffic, introduction of an automated baggage sorting system to replace the current manual handling, and passenger boarding gates facilitating larger aircraft.
Plans for a new terminal have, however, been long in the waiting, and the road has had many twists and turns.
In March 2009, the Turkish construction company TAV won the tender for developing Latvia's state-owned Riga Airport including a new airport terminal and a second runway by the middle of 2010, aiming at completing the first stage June, 2012.
In September 2009, Riga Airport however recommended to the Latvian ministry of transport that the tender process with TAV be discontinued.
In June 2010, airBaltic and the Turkish company TAV Airports Holding A.S. set up a Joint Venture for the development, construction and operation of a new passenger terminal at Riga International Airport, and a tender for the architectural design of the terminal was opened.
The state, however, never agreed to this venture that remained on the shelf.
In 2010 the airport handled a total of 4.6 mio passengers, expecting to exceed five mio passengers in 2011