To encourage the emergence of new destinations at Riga Airport, on Tuesday the government reduced the fee that airlines must pay for each departing passenger on new destinations served by the airport. Although this will ease airlines’ financial burden, the main cost items that are criticized by, for example, Ryanair, will not be changed.
Ryanair has significantly reduced its total seat capacity (by about 20%) for the 2025/2026 winter season, concentrating capacity in markets with lower operating costs, and it does not intend to restore seat capacity or canceled destinations in the summer season either. Meanwhile, Wizz Air and Transavia completely exited the Latvian market in 2025.
To encourage the emergence of new destinations at Riga Airport, rules were already in force that allowed airlines not to pay for passengers served by the airport, but these rules applied only to such new destinations whose airports were located more than 3,000 kilometers from Riga Airport.
Recognizing that the introduction of such distant destinations is disproportionately expensive in the current geopolitical circumstances (the ban on using Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian airspace) and therefore not profitable for airlines, the government has extended discounts also to closer destinations located at airports in countries already popular with passengers.
Thus, according to the newly approved rules, if an airline starts regular flights to a new destination and carries at least 3,500 passengers in the first six months, it will not have to pay the airport in the first year for the handling of departing passengers. In the second year the fee per passenger will increase to 1.02 euros, and in the third year to 1.7 euros. After that, the airline will have to pay the standard fee – 3.39 euros for each departing passenger served by the airport who is not a transit or transfer passenger.
At the beginning of March, when announcing that it would not resume flights to six destinations in the summer season, the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair explained that the reason lies in high and non-competitive Latvian aviation taxes and rising air traffic management charges.
However, the costs mentioned in Ryanair’s announcement are not related to Riga Airport’s charges, but to the air traffic management service fee applied by the state-owned Latvijas gaisa satiksme, as well as the safety oversight fee of the Civil Aviation Agency (CAA).
Therefore, to find out whether there are plans to reduce these charges as well, Inc. contacted the Ministry of Transport. The short answer – there are no such plans.
The Director of the Aviation Department of the Ministry of Transport, Ingmārs Kibermanis, explains that the price list of Latvijas gaisa satiksme is approved in accordance with Cabinet regulations, which have been adjusted and revised, taking into account the infringement procedure initiated by the European Commission in 2024 regarding the allocation of aeronautical costs. “Therefore, in this area the member states have limited opportunities to flexibly apply additional relief or support mechanisms,” Kibermanis states.
To finance the oversight functions of the Civil Aviation Agency (CAA), a passenger security charge is applied. “The CAA is not financed from the state budget, and without such a charge it would need an annual state subsidy of about 5 million euros to ensure its operations. Similar charges have also been introduced in other European Union member states,” Kibermanis explains, outlining why it is impossible to introduce discounts.
At the same time, he reminds: “According to a study prepared by Riga Airport, when adding up all charges and fees applied to airlines – including navigation, handling, take-off and others – Riga Airport still retains the lowest cost level among the capital city airports of the Baltic states, Scandinavia, and Poland.”
Ryanair does not particularly trust this study, because according to the airline’s experience, for example, Poland is a country that actively supports aviation growth and is more competitive than Riga Airport. The airline also counts the airports of Slovakia, Hungary, and Albania as financially more advantageous than Riga Airport.
Originally published at https://inc-baltics.com/lidostu-riga-censas-padarit-pievilcigaku-jaunu-galamerku-ieviesanai/
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