newstodate.aero
Apr 06, 2018 (newstodate): Keeping its cards close, Latvia's Riga Airport is preparing for major air cargo infrastructure projects in the coming few years.
Speaking to newstodate on the situation after the coming loss of Turkish Cargo's freighter services at Riga Airport after April 19, 2018, Liene Freivalde, Riga International Airport Director, Aviation services and business development said that a new cargo apron designated for wide-body aircraft will be constructed by the airport authority in 2019, and by 2020 a new air cargo logistics center will become operational.
She refused, however, to unveil further details on the projects at this stage.
Meanwhile, the air cargo community in Latvia is aware that Riga Airport plans, with the assistance of a neutral developer, to build a so-called Cargo City - a warehouse and office space complex.
-Consolidators, airlines, warehouse operators and other industry participants are then invited to rent space in this complex. The vision of Riga Airport is thus to have all main players in the cargo community under one roof, an industry source says.
-At the moment this developer has only one potential customer in its portfolio, which is of course insufficient to start anything, but Riga Airport seems determined to keep pushing this project to implement their vision, the source says.
In Spring 2015, a contract between Riga Airport and Azerbaijan's Silk Way Group was signed for the construction of a new cargo and logistics complex at the airport for handling of transit shipments by air between the CIS region, Central Asia and Europa.
The project would also comprise the construction of new access roads to the airport to ease onward trucking as well as other road traffic, relieving today's congestion on the existing road between the airport and Riga.
The planned Silk Way facility at Riga was reportedly slated for completion by 2017 - but nothing come of it, and Riga Airport now confirms that Silk Way is not involved in its current plan for new air cargo infrastructure.
Riga Airport caught Silk Way's attention due to the airport's strong role in the ISAF logistics starting from April 2012 when freighter flights by US carriers National Air Cargo and Kalitta Air were launched to fly supplies from Riga to the ISAF forces in Afghanistan, with up to three daily Boeing 747-400F flights on the route.
Speaking to newstodate on the situation after the coming loss of Turkish Cargo's freighter services at Riga Airport after April 19, 2018, Liene Freivalde, Riga International Airport Director, Aviation services and business development said that a new cargo apron designated for wide-body aircraft will be constructed by the airport authority in 2019, and by 2020 a new air cargo logistics center will become operational.
She refused, however, to unveil further details on the projects at this stage.
Meanwhile, the air cargo community in Latvia is aware that Riga Airport plans, with the assistance of a neutral developer, to build a so-called Cargo City - a warehouse and office space complex.
-Consolidators, airlines, warehouse operators and other industry participants are then invited to rent space in this complex. The vision of Riga Airport is thus to have all main players in the cargo community under one roof, an industry source says.
-At the moment this developer has only one potential customer in its portfolio, which is of course insufficient to start anything, but Riga Airport seems determined to keep pushing this project to implement their vision, the source says.
In Spring 2015, a contract between Riga Airport and Azerbaijan's Silk Way Group was signed for the construction of a new cargo and logistics complex at the airport for handling of transit shipments by air between the CIS region, Central Asia and Europa.
The project would also comprise the construction of new access roads to the airport to ease onward trucking as well as other road traffic, relieving today's congestion on the existing road between the airport and Riga.
The planned Silk Way facility at Riga was reportedly slated for completion by 2017 - but nothing come of it, and Riga Airport now confirms that Silk Way is not involved in its current plan for new air cargo infrastructure.
Riga Airport caught Silk Way's attention due to the airport's strong role in the ISAF logistics starting from April 2012 when freighter flights by US carriers National Air Cargo and Kalitta Air were launched to fly supplies from Riga to the ISAF forces in Afghanistan, with up to three daily Boeing 747-400F flights on the route.