RIGA — Latvia led the European Union in percentage increase in number of air passengers in 2008, according to Eurostat data released Friday.

The EU’s statistics arm said that Latvia saw a 16.8 percent jump in air travelers last year, ahead of Romania and Slovakia (16.3 percent), and Lithuania (16.2 percent). The news was a pleasant surprise compared to the usual batch of glum statistics on Latvia, which leads the 27-member EU in economic decline and unemployment. It also seemed to serve as justification for aggressive expansion policy that was adopted by former transport minister Ainars Šlesers when he took up the post in 2004.

Unlike most other economic figures, the growth didn’t die in 2008, either. Krišjānis Peters, Riga International Airport’s chairman of the board, said Friday that the airport planned to serve a record 4 million passengers this year, up 10 percent year-on-year. He said revenues would increase to 29 million lats (€41 million) for the year.

As regards earnings, Peters told the Baltic News Service that, “It is too early to speak about profit…This year was also good financially, but of course we cannot look at ourselves without considering the background – the overall economic situation in the country.”

In the airport director’s words, “We see what is happening with the local market, with the businesses that operate near the airport and inside it … frankly speaking, the Latvian market is not the best brand today.”

Currently 12 airlines have flights to and from Riga International Airport. Together they will fly to 61 destinations this winter. The airport’s largest carrier is airBaltic, while the second is Ryanair, which has a nearly 22 percent market share. In October, marking the five-year anniversary of flights to and from Riga, a Ryanair official said the Irish carrier planned to expand operations in the Latvian capital. The company may even open a base of operations in Riga in the near future.

Meanwhile on Thursday Hungarian budget airline Wizz Air announced it would open three routes from Riga to London, Oslo and Turku.

Gerhards cites the airport’s tariff policy as a instigating its expansion.

“The airport tariff policy is designed to be sustainable, transparent and what is particularly essential today — predictable — contributing to development of Riga International Airport into a serious transfer hub in the region of Northern Europe,” Gerhards said.

— Baltic Reports Editor Nathan Greenhalgh contributed to this article.