newstodate.aero
Sep 13, 2018 (newstodate): Despite the loss of Turkish Cargo's twice-weekly freighter service, Latvia's Riga Airport is still seeing impressive growth in cargo volumes in 2018.
In the first eight months of this year, total cargo volumes at Riga Airport are thus up by 27.8 percent, y-o-y, to 18,575 tonnes, and in August alone the airport handled 2,256 tonnes, also up 9.5 percent.
On July 1, 2017, Turkish Cargo launched freighter flights on the route between Istanbul and Riga Airport with two weekly Airbus A330-200F rotations - but moved the entire operation to Vilnius Airport, in Lithuania, from April 19, 2018, after only nine months of services.
-The performance in 2018 proves that there is indeed a market for cargo and all-cargo services in Latvia as shippers and agents became aware that air logistics offer definite advantages as proved by the experiences with Turkish Cargo, says Arthur Kokars, Riga Airport Advisor to the Board.
-All efforts are therefore now being made to attract new cargo carriers to pick up the business opportunities at Riga Airport - or make Turkish Cargo reconsider its decision and move at least one of the two freighter rotations back to Riga Airport, says Mr Kokars.
In the first eight months of this year, total cargo volumes at Riga Airport are thus up by 27.8 percent, y-o-y, to 18,575 tonnes, and in August alone the airport handled 2,256 tonnes, also up 9.5 percent.
On July 1, 2017, Turkish Cargo launched freighter flights on the route between Istanbul and Riga Airport with two weekly Airbus A330-200F rotations - but moved the entire operation to Vilnius Airport, in Lithuania, from April 19, 2018, after only nine months of services.
-The performance in 2018 proves that there is indeed a market for cargo and all-cargo services in Latvia as shippers and agents became aware that air logistics offer definite advantages as proved by the experiences with Turkish Cargo, says Arthur Kokars, Riga Airport Advisor to the Board.
-All efforts are therefore now being made to attract new cargo carriers to pick up the business opportunities at Riga Airport - or make Turkish Cargo reconsider its decision and move at least one of the two freighter rotations back to Riga Airport, says Mr Kokars.