Riga Airport will add roughly 20,000 square meters of terminal space under a €98 million expansion designed to support an annual capacity of up to 12 million passengers.

The four-stage build will run approximately 42 months from groundbreaking and also covers 29,500 square meters of surrounding roads, sidewalks and landscaped areas. RIX Riga Airport said the existing terminal will stay fully operational throughout construction, with temporary traffic and access restrictions as each stage progresses.

What does the project include?

The scope is delivered as a design-build contract split into four stages:

• Site preparation and temporary infrastructure first
• Reconstruction of utilities, roads and public areas second
• Main terminal expansion as stage three
• Permanent exterior works and removal of temporary facilities to close

The new build adds check-in facilities, passenger waiting areas, a security screening zone and a baggage claim hall. Riga Airport is targeting BREEAM Very Good sustainability certification and will roll out new passenger-service and aviation-security technologies aligned with European Union standards. The current terminal already processes passenger volumes above its original design capacity, a constraint the expansion is designed to relieve.

Who is building it?

The RIXLA consortium, pairing Latvian contractors LNK Industries and Arčers, was selected following an international procurement that initially attracted 17 construction companies and consortia from nine countries. RIXLA takes the design-build mandate into the construction phase, with stage-one site preparation as the first deliverable.

How is the €98 million being financed?

The construction cost splits equally three ways: the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Nordic Investment Bank and OP Corporate Bank's Latvian branch each carry a third. A separate facility of up to €150 million is available to Riga Airport, including funding for technology systems bundled into the project. Riga Airport operates as a state-owned company.

Where does this fit in Riga's long-term plan?

The terminal is the first major element of Riga Airport's Master Plan 2025–2050, a phased infrastructure programme that calls for development as passenger traffic grows. Later phases contemplate a new South Pier, additional aircraft parking stands and taxiways, modernized deicing areas and physical integration with the planned Rail Baltica high-speed rail network.

The expanded terminal is intended to support capacity of up to 12 million passengers annually, giving Riga headroom to absorb growth in step with airline network additions and wider Baltic catchment development.

What are the open questions?

Three variables will shape whether the new capacity fills as planned. Airline network decisions and the pace of seat-supply growth on existing routes will set the demand trajectory. The timing of Rail Baltica, planned as a high-speed rail link connecting the Baltic states to the wider European network, will determine how much of the catchment shifts to rail. The four-stage construction sequence also leaves the airport managing passenger flows through a live building site for more than three years, with operational continuity dependent on the temporary infrastructure phase performing as designed.

Delivery of the new terminal, expected within roughly three and a half years of construction start, will mark the first concrete output of the Master Plan 2025–2050 and a test of whether Riga can absorb the headroom before the next phase of pier and apron expansion begins.