Riga Airport

✅ Verified Review | Over the past seven years of constant travelling throughout European airports, I have never come across such a poorly managed fast track security desk than at the Riga International airport. I've arrived at the airport 1.5 hours prior to my departure time. Having reached security, there was large queue and I decided to buy a fast track ticket at an additional cost. Upon my arrival at the fast track section there were seven passengers ahead of me. The section was being managed by a one member of staff. All of a sudden a large mob of passengers (of up to 50) appeared behind me and were extremely rude and hostile. The large crowd of people seemed to overwhelm the one staff member present. They demanded that they should be allowed to skip the queue as they had a business class ticket on a scheduled Aeroflot flight to Moscow. By the time I finally passed security and reached the gate of my flight, the Ryanair crew couldn’t let me board the plane as they had closed the flight albeit we had missed deadline by one minute. I am shocked at the behaviour of the staff at Riga International Airport, firstly for charging for a service they don’t seem to operate (fast track) and secondly for not having any security. The airport seems to have a laissez faire attitude to the standard rules and protocol in terms to queues and indeed Airport policy. After my complaint submission I received an email saying that I should have consulted social media. I appreciate airports can be busy places with periods fluctuating but surely it is down to the Airport to plan and foresee such circumstances as well as deal with consequences of poor customer service, and this was a occurrence that could have easily been prevented by having more staff on.

I have over the 11 years used Riga Airport, and have seen it grow in size. On Saturday we arrived on an Air Baltic flight. From the aircraft parking on the stand to exiting from main door took 20 minutes. The aircraft parked at a distant stand and the steps were at the aircraft within a few minutes has were a fleet of buses to take us to the terminal. The passport controls took minutes due to having 6 or 8 desks open and has you walk into baggage reclaim, the cases were arriving so there was no waiting. The staff encountered all smiled and were polite.

Riga is a really inconvenient and stressful airport. Gate infrormation was hard to find and when asked the staff were pretty rude. The most terrible aspect though were the gate monitors which spin meaningless animations instead of flight information. If you are not sure about your gate you need to look at the monitors of which the closest with actual the information is 400 meters from the departure gates - it makes zero sense to me.

When coming to this airport, one needs to be aware of that there is no customer service and no smiles from the staff to be seen. Security officers are rude and speak insufficent English. The only plus is that it is fast and there are no queues, but there are no tables before and guidance is really poor. There were enough seats and toilets, signs are clear enough. There are enough options for shopping and lots of local products. All the places were clean and clear. Bus driver was also very rude but that was a surprise.

An early morning departure, was painless and there were no queues at any point despite the increased security levels. Check in opened on time and was quick and efficient. Security was painless and as a seasoned traveller I always try to make life easy for myself and the staff. The departure gate was well arranged and boarding was quick and the aircraft was near to the departure gate. A good selection of duty free and more seemed to open up has time became nearer to 6am. My only comments is I wish the check in and gate staff would smile.

Very efficient airport, with quick security checks and clean facilities let down by rude and inept departure gate staff! They seem unable to arrange a queueing system that actually helps passenger flow, instead they installed movable barriers only when the lounge was full of passengers waiting for Stansted and Dublin flights. Result? Complete chaos made worse by staff at the last minute randomly picking on passengers forcing some to put cabin luggage in the hold 'because the flight was full'. Yet I witnessed numerous examples of oversized cabin luggage being allowed through but one poor guy was picked on and told his bag was too big and he would have to pay €50. His bag was no bigger than others that the same staff member was allowing through. Overall, a good airport let down by poor customer service and badly trained and managed staff.

I have used Riga airport many times over the past 10 years and have seen the airport grow in size and in the number of airlines which now use the airport. The airport is currently building a new 2nd terminal and there are some alterations to where aircraft are parked, it can mean a very slight delay in deplaning and getting to the terminal buildings. However once inside passport control and baggage collection for inbound flights is still and slick operation with an average time 30 minutes from landing to been outside and on the way into Riga. Flying out from Riga is totally painless and smooth. Before security, there is a good choice of restaurant's with a TGIFs and Lido, which between them offer a mix of Latvian and International dishes. Security is painless and very efficient with little or no queues, we were travelling at lunchtime on a Sunday which is a peak time and it took us 10 minutes to clear the security process. Airside there is a good mix of shops and also food and drink outlets. I am sure Riga is hoping to become a hub for the Baltic States given new terminal and the talk of a rail link into Riga. The taxi fare is the region of 11-15 euro depending where you are going in Riga.

I had low expectations but was pleasantly surprised. The airport is spacious, clean, and attractive. Security was very quick and there was plenty of shopping options and seating. They are renovating extensively so we had a long bus ride to our plane.

Could be a nice cosy Airport however its main problem seems to be the staff. Security checks are extremely slow and time consuming they won't open more than 2 checkpoints even if people have to line up for 1/2 hour and would miss their flight due to slow security checks. security staff is unfriendly and refuses to speak English. It can also happen that you have to spend 15 min or more inside the plane after landing as no staff is available to operate passenger bridge. Screens are incredibly small and do not really help you to receive required information about your flights.

Flew back from Riga last night. Didn't arrive at the airport due to our flight being diverted to Kaunas Lithuania. However outbound the service was extremely poor. Staff were rude and the operations implemented at Riga airport were terrible. Coffee shop staff were useless and the departure lounge was severely overcrowded. It was also extremely hot in there. Wouldn't recommend.