newstodate.aero

May 15, 2020 (newstodate): With all scheduled international flights suspended at Riga Airport since March 17, 2020, cargo volumes have decreased as well.
   In April 2020, the airport thus handled a total of 1,069 tonnes of air cargo and mail, steeply down by 49.6 percent, y-o-y.
   Worst hit were the mail volumes, normally a strong business, that decreased by 78 percent to only 227 tonnes due to the short-fall of belly cargo capacity notably on now-suspended airBaltic flights.
   Cargo fared better, down "only" 22 percent to 842 tonnes and boosted by the weekly Boeing 737-800BCF freighter flight since May 2019 feeding at Moscow to and from the Volga-Dnepr Group's freighter service to Hangzhou, in China.
   Also relieving the situation is the Ukrainian cargo carrier Eleron that started operations between Kiev and Riga on January 17, 2020, offering 5.5 tonnes cargo capacity on a weekly AN-26 rotation, later adding also freighter services between Lviv and Riga on a weekly basis.
   After the reopening of scheduled passenger flights cautiously starting by June 2020, Riga Airport is thus well positioned for a significant upturn in cargo volumes, belly and freighter capacity included.