Airport, Construction, Latvia, Transport

The airport has revised its development plan, which envisaged building a new passenger terminal so the airport could serve up to 30 million passengers a year, because of the current economic situation in Latvia and the world, admitting that the development plan has to be scaled down, explained Gerhards.

"The 30 million passenger turnover figure is too optimistic," said Gerhards.

The final decision though is up to the government.

The airport's president, Krisjanis Peters, emphasized, had he known that the domestic airport would contract that much, the airport had rather focused on transit passengers, not the local market.

"Building such a terminal for the non-existent local market would be irresponsible," said Peters.

All the participants in the competition have been informed about the decision to halt the competition, yet so far none have responded.

"I cannot be sure that there will be no lawsuits, but the documents for the competition clearly stated that each party is responsible for its expenditures," stressed Peters.

It is yet unknown who will be selected to implement the airport's development plan, but there have already been several offers from airlines regarding the development of transit and transfer infrastructure at the airport.

Peters said that most likely a new terminal would be built, although expanding the current terminal was also being considered. It will be decided whether to announce a new competition after all legal aspects of the matter are appraised.

The new project might cost around LVL 100 million, said Peters.

Previously the Turkish consortium TAV Havalumanlari Holding AS (TAV) and Latvia's Skonto buve pledged to invest EUR 300 million in the development of the new Riga Airport passenger terminal. Another LVL 200 million was to be drawn from other investors that would build hotels, office buildings and exhibition and recreational complexes at the territory of the airport. The state would not have to provide any funds or underwrite any loans.

It was planned that construction of the new terminal would start next year, and completed in 2012.

As reported, airBaltic President Bertolt Flick said that that to the airline, which is the largest client of the airport, the scale of the Riga Airport's development plans is too large: the airline only needs a new and modern terminal for transit passengers, because the current terminal is too narrow, the newspaper "Dienas Bizness" reported.

TAV President Mustafa Sani Sener told "Dienas Bizness" that TAV understands that the situation has changed, and TAV is now in talks with airBaltic on scaling the Riga Airport development project down.

Flick emphasizes that airBaltic does not need a huge project that will cost several million lats, but only a modern and spacious terminal to serve the rapidly increasing transit passengers flows. The construction of the new terminal must be launched as soon as possible, he also said.