"By the way, Air Baltic has promised to become profitable this year: I am very skeptical"

During an interview given to Äripäev, Rein Loik commented the news that Riga Airport is close to handling 4 million passengers a year against 1.35 million of Tallinn Airport.

“Riga Airport is a transit hub and an Estonian passenger travelling to Brussels through Riga is registered four times. This is how the number of passengers in Riga is skyrocketing. True, this is not an exclusive of Riga as it is anormal procedure also in other transit hubs. Tallinn, of course, is not a transit hub,” said Loik, describing how airports artificially inflate passenger numbers.

Loik said that while Tallinn Airport was self-supporting, Riga Airport was living on considerable state aid. He hinted that the gap was also caused by Latvian state subsidizing both the airport and its largest carrier Air Baltic. “Riga Airport is 70% Air Baltic,” he explained.

“By the way, Air Baltic has promised to become profitable this year, but I am very skeptical,” said Loik.

Speaking of Tallinn Airport, Loik said that from the start of this year, the passenger numbers are by about 25% lower than a year earlier but the gap has been declining in the recent months. “In November we should be down to 20% and expect the year’s passenger number to reach 1.35 million people, or about 25% less than in 2008,” he said.

Anyways, Loik seems to be optimist for the numbers of passengers on 2010 compare this year, but it will not be at the level of 2008.