Latvia 2006 - Travel to Riga by Air

Riga Airport
Riga's airport (Lidosta Riga) is on the southwest side of the city, about 13 km from the center of Riga, and about 10 km south of Jurmala. Riga's is a modern airport with all the services expected in a large European city (currency exchange, left luggage, etc.) More information can be found at the airport website (EN, LV).

City buses and taxis are the choices for getting to central Riga or the Hotel Lielupe in Jurmala. Buses number 22 and 22A (express service) travel to the center of Riga (near train station) during the 0530 to 2315 period for about 0.25 Lats. Connections by rail, bus or minibus can be made from central Riga to the Bulduri section of Jurmala, near the Hotel Lielupe. It is possible to take one of the buses from the airport to the RMR stop, walk 600m to the st. Zasulauks train station, and thus have a shorter bus and train ride, avoiding the center of Riga. The bus or bus/train combination will cost about 2 Lv and take 40 to 1 hour.

Taxis provide direct transport between the airport and the conference hotel, with no walking! A taxis ride will cost 8-10 Lv during the day, and take 15 minutes or less. See the local transportation section on the general travel page for more information.

Airline Transport
There are a large number airlines now serve Riga (airport code RIX), including some budget airlines, including:
Air Baltic (RU)
Finnair
Lufthansa
KLM
SAS
CSA (Czech Airlines)
LOT (Polish Airlines)
Aeroflot (RU)
Austrian Airlines
British Airlines
RyanAir
EasyJet

Example Travel Costs
Early November is the low season for northern European travel. Below are some airfare prices for direct flights to Riga during February 2006, and are likely to be similar to November 2006 prices. The cheapest fares are on the budget airlines (Ryan Air, EasyJet & Air Baltic), which have restrictions on purchase, travel and luggage which might not be suitable for many travellers. These fares include all taxes and fees. Clearly, travelling to Riga by air does not have to be an expensive trip.

Departure - One-way fare (RT Fare) - in Euros
London STN (Stansted) €24 (59)
Liverpool LPL €22 (57)
Dublin DUB €46 (118)
Frankfurt (Hahn) HHN €15 (24)
Berlin (Schoenefeld) SXF €65 (146)
Stockholm NYO €23 (45)

Departures from North America to London were as low as $260 RT from NYC and $410 RT from Minneapolis (MSP) for this same travel period.