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The tariffs and charges at Riga Airport were changed in late 2009. In early July, airBaltic raised concerns that Ryanair is given preferential treatment at Riga Airport and pays only half of the price per passenger serviced compared to airBaltic. The Latvian carrier filed a complaint with the Competition Council and a lodged a claim with the court demanding 6 m LVL (more than 9 million euros) from the Riga Airport in damages. According to documents, recently leaked to media, the price differences appear unexpectedly greater.
Bertolt Flick, President and CEO of airBaltic: "Our previous assumption was that Riga Airport charged airBaltic more than double the fees that Ryanair was paying per passenger serviced. According to leaked documents, it appears that Ryanair was paying only 1 Euro per aircraft serviced at Riga airport, while airBaltic was charged up to 500 Euros. It is unacceptable that a foreign carrier has and still receives preferential treatment paying hundreds of times lower fees than airBaltic. Moreover, in early 2010, Riga airport doubled the ground handling fees to airBaltic, increased transit passenger fees, landing fees and introduced a completely new infrastructure fee. We decided to suspend our payments to Riga Airport and demanded the situation be resolved.
We have also proposed to Riga Airport that in the future airBaltic makes pre-payments for services received. airBaltic urges that in the meantime independent auditors conduct an objective analysis of the tariffs and charges at Riga Airport. airBaltic is not prepared to cover 90% of the costs of Riga Airport."
airBaltic serves 80 destinations from its home base at Riga, Latvia. From every one of these, airBaltic offers convenient connections via North Hub Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, CIS and the Middle East.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
