newstodate.aero
Dec 02, 2014 (newstodate): While the ISAF cargo traffic at Latvia's Riga Airport has been scaled down after the winding up of the military activities in Afghanistan, the long-term effects from this experience remain important for the airport.
-There are still significant volumes of cargo and traffic by ISAF at Riga Airport, now mostly concerning the gradual return of equipment and material from the military contingents, says Arturs Kokars, Riga Airport Director of Strategic Development.
-But while this traffic is now more moderate, the ISAF operations have highlighted the capacities of Riga Airport and has thus positioned the airport as a competent cargo airport in the eyes of the aviation industry.
-We are now starting on the process towards a significant development of the airport's infrastructure and terminal facilities in an effort to cope with future larger volumes of passenger traffic, and in this respect transfer traffic is important to Riga. Latvia is in itself a market of limited size, so our strategy will be to position Riga as an efficient hub for the entire Baltic region both as to passenger and cargo traffic.
-Due to the current situation, our national carrier airBaltic is strengthening its point-to-point traffic while its transfer traffic has been reduced. We certainly hope that in the future, airBaltic will again build up more and more transfer operations, but this is of course entirely up to the airline, says Mr Kokars.
-There are still significant volumes of cargo and traffic by ISAF at Riga Airport, now mostly concerning the gradual return of equipment and material from the military contingents, says Arturs Kokars, Riga Airport Director of Strategic Development.
-But while this traffic is now more moderate, the ISAF operations have highlighted the capacities of Riga Airport and has thus positioned the airport as a competent cargo airport in the eyes of the aviation industry.
-We are now starting on the process towards a significant development of the airport's infrastructure and terminal facilities in an effort to cope with future larger volumes of passenger traffic, and in this respect transfer traffic is important to Riga. Latvia is in itself a market of limited size, so our strategy will be to position Riga as an efficient hub for the entire Baltic region both as to passenger and cargo traffic.
-Due to the current situation, our national carrier airBaltic is strengthening its point-to-point traffic while its transfer traffic has been reduced. We certainly hope that in the future, airBaltic will again build up more and more transfer operations, but this is of course entirely up to the airline, says Mr Kokars.