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Mar 24, 2020 (newstodate): Latvia's Riga Airport is calling for immediate support from the state to keep the company in a shape to turn on the heat again once the current coronavirus-crisis has been overcome.
- The Board of the company reminds that Riga Airport is a strategically important transport hub, which plays a significant role and influences the national economy as a whole, and it is important to ensure the company's ability to restore its operations after the end of the crisis, the Riga Airport Board says in a release.
As immediate efforts to cope with the situation, including extraordinary budget-saving measures: all investment projects will be reduced by 85 percent, operating costs by 60 percent, and staff costs by 40 percent.
Already, more than 500 employees are on downtime, preserving their salaries during the period of the state of emergency announced to last until April 14, 2020.
-However, estimates suggest that the company will have to significantly reduce the number of employees by June, which will be decided by the Board, reviewing the required resources and workloads, as well as providing an optimum margin for gradual restoration of the operations of the company after the crisis, the message reads.
According to sources, the Latvian government will decide on issues including the call from Riga Airport for support in a session today.
Today, all international passenger flights are banned under the emergency situation declared in Latvia, leaving Riga Airport operating on a minimal scale, with only cargo flights and repatriation flights for the return of Latvian nationals.
Cargo operations at Riga Airport now comprises a weekly Boeing 737-800BCF freighter flight feeding via Moscow to and from the Volga-Dnepr Group's freighter service to Hangzhou, in China.
Riga Airport is also hoping to see the scheduled return of the Ukrainian cargo carrier Eleron that started operations currently suspended on the route between Kiev and Riga on January 17, 2020, offering 5.5 tonnes cargo capacity on a weekly AN-26 rotation.
In 2019, Riga Airport saw its passenger volumes up by 10.5 percent, y-o-y, to more than 7.8 million passengers, and the airport handled a total of 27,265 tonnes of cargo during January-December 2019.
- The Board of the company reminds that Riga Airport is a strategically important transport hub, which plays a significant role and influences the national economy as a whole, and it is important to ensure the company's ability to restore its operations after the end of the crisis, the Riga Airport Board says in a release.
As immediate efforts to cope with the situation, including extraordinary budget-saving measures: all investment projects will be reduced by 85 percent, operating costs by 60 percent, and staff costs by 40 percent.
Already, more than 500 employees are on downtime, preserving their salaries during the period of the state of emergency announced to last until April 14, 2020.
-However, estimates suggest that the company will have to significantly reduce the number of employees by June, which will be decided by the Board, reviewing the required resources and workloads, as well as providing an optimum margin for gradual restoration of the operations of the company after the crisis, the message reads.
According to sources, the Latvian government will decide on issues including the call from Riga Airport for support in a session today.
Today, all international passenger flights are banned under the emergency situation declared in Latvia, leaving Riga Airport operating on a minimal scale, with only cargo flights and repatriation flights for the return of Latvian nationals.
Cargo operations at Riga Airport now comprises a weekly Boeing 737-800BCF freighter flight feeding via Moscow to and from the Volga-Dnepr Group's freighter service to Hangzhou, in China.
Riga Airport is also hoping to see the scheduled return of the Ukrainian cargo carrier Eleron that started operations currently suspended on the route between Kiev and Riga on January 17, 2020, offering 5.5 tonnes cargo capacity on a weekly AN-26 rotation.
In 2019, Riga Airport saw its passenger volumes up by 10.5 percent, y-o-y, to more than 7.8 million passengers, and the airport handled a total of 27,265 tonnes of cargo during January-December 2019.