International passenger services restarted at Riga Airport on May 18 with four flights a day operated by airBaltic.
Flights to Vilnius (Lithuania), Tallinn (Estonia), Oslo (Norway) and Frankfurt (Germany), have restarted as the airport launched its epidemiological safety program, #ForbidTheVirusFromTravelling, providing safety measures to protect the airport and employees, and keep passengers safe.
The airport has worked with Latvian health authorities and taken recommendations from international aviation organizations into account to minimize the risk of COVID-19 spreading.
Laila Odina, chairperson of the airport board, said, “The effectiveness of these measures also depends on each of us – how responsibly and carefully we will meet the requirements. That is why I encourage us to travel ourselves, but we should not let the virus travel.”
Raimonds Gruntins, director regional affairs for Europe at the International Air Transport Association welcomed the measures taken by Riga Airport: “It covers important aspects that should be taken into account in order to make passenger services and other airport processes as epidemiologically safe as possible, while taking care of both passenger and aircraft service quality and aviation security.”
Passengers must wear a mask and present either a boarding pass or booking confirmation before entering the airport. All travelers, except children under the age of seven, are required to wear face masks while at the airport.
People who are seeing off or meeting passengers will not be allowed into the airport unless the passenger needs special assistance.
Hand disinfection machines have been placed throughout the terminal and are available at check-in desks and boarding areas.
To keep employees safe, customer service workplaces are equipped with safety glass.
Airport employees are provided with personal protective equipment and additional cleaning and disinfection measures are being implemented in the passenger terminal.