Press Release

Issued by FCG OPS.

September 17, 2015

Flight Consulting Group, a Latvian holding company specializing in services for business aviation, expects 60 new jobs to be created within three years after the launch of the new state-of-art FBO Riga business aviation center at Riga International airport. The company stressed that there were only two employees at the time of company's foundation in 2000 while in 2015 the total staff of the holding and the subsidiaries amounts to 70 top-ranked specialists.

“Business aviation plays an important role in the economy of Europe. It contributes to the improvement and strengthening of business relations between the major financial and business centers as well as creates a favorable business environment in every particular region. If Latvia wants the country's economy be export-oriented, it is crucially important to establish a favorable investment environment and create all the conditions for the development of international business, including quality services in business aviation," explained Roman Starkov, co-owner of Flight Consulting Group.

Business aviation allows significant timesaving by providing the fastest way to get from point A to point B. This is crucially important for business owners and senior executives who run businesses or have business interests in different cities and countries. Business aviation is a good export-oriented product. It is an important revenue stream for an airport, allowing for the creation of new jobs, attracting investment and contributing to overall business activity in the region.

“Latvia has a favorable geographical location on the crossroads of the East and the West. Just within one hour and a half of flight, one can reach Europe's main business centers, Berlin, Stockholm or Moscow. Latvia has strong business relations with the EU and the CIS countries; it has modern infrastructure and professional service companies. Rietumu is specializing in the corporate segment and we see a huge potential of private and business aviation continuously investing in its development both in Latvia and abroad”, said Renat Lokomet, board member of Rietumu.

According to Oxford Economics' survey one business aviation passenger brings the save revenue to the state economy as nine business-class passengers. The study shows that 80% of business aviation flights are performed for business purposes.

“If we compare Riga with the closest neighbouring cities, FBO Riga business aviation center is our competitive advantage”, said Andris Liepins, chairman of Riga International airport.

“This has been the biggest private investment in Riga airport for the last years that, without any doubt, is very important for the economic development of the entire region. Let us recall that over the past few years the airport has allocated about 94 million Euros to improve the environmental protection, increase the capacity of the airport and improve the level of safety of flights”, added Andris Liepins.

The FBO Riga business aviation center opened its doors September 8, 2015.