RIGA, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Riga International Airport closed 2020 with a 15.51-million-euro (18.5 million U.S. dollars) loss in contrast to profit made a year before, as the coronavirus pandemic grounded the aviation business all over the world, the airport's management informed Friday citing preliminary results.

The Latvian airport's turnover, meanwhile, shrank 54.2 percent last year to 29.8 million euros.

The COVID-19 pandemic dealt a heavy blow to the airport's 2020 performance results as passenger numbers plummeted 74.2 percent from 2019 to just over two million last year.

The airport noted, however, that its loss in 2020 proved smaller than initially projected. Although the airport's fixed costs that cannot be reduced without significantly affecting operations are high, the airport managed to cut its overall expenditure by 26 percent, or 15.6 million euros, last year.

As a result of collective layoffs necessitated by the COVID-19 crisis, Riga Airport cut 335 jobs last year. At the end of 2020 the airport employed 1,009 people.

Earlier this month, the European Commission greenlighted the Latvian government's plan to provide up to 39.7 million euros for the recapitalization of Riga Airport to help it survive the COVID-19 crisis and stabilize operations.

In 2020, Riga Airport's market share in the Baltics was 43 percent as compared to Lithuanian airport's 39 percent and Tallinn Airport's 18 percent. (1 euro = 1.19 U.S. dollars) Enditem

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