Arnis Luhse

The new terminal for Riga airport, the total costs for which reach 100 million EUR, is not a business projects, and we will never recover the invested money, admits Riga airport manager Arnis Luhse.

At the same time, he admitted in an interview to Lietišķā Diena magazine that the new airport terminal project needs to be realized. «The existing terminal is too small, it can service three million passengers per year. We need to take into account the so called peaks, passenger jams that usually take place twice in the morning and once in the evening. This is when people sit on each other’s heads. During peak times, there are also not enough security checkpoints. There is also a problem with passenger baggage processing – we are the only airport in Europe that services five million passenger per year and organize their baggage by hand – we simply cannot install an automatic machine, because there is no room for it,»- Luhse says.

A currently important issue is the attraction of the necessary funding for the terminal’s construction. Luhse admits: «We have enough money for the project. However, our own money will not be enough for the construction. So the only thing left is either attracting investors or using money from Europe. In the case of the former opportunity, we will need to wait for the next EU money acquisition period – 2014. The government said that it will not participate in the funding of the project.»

At the same time, it is planned to realize the creation of a new VIP lounge. One million LVL will be invested in this project, and this money is expected to be returned at the expense of our Eastern neighbours in a matter of a few years.

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