The number of passengers traveling from Vilnius and Tallinn to Riga and then on to final destinations in Europe and Asia during the early part of this year increased several times over, reports the Latvian national airline airBaltic. The most popular route in January in terms of passenger numbers was from Vilnius to Riga with 12,922 passengers, nearly five times more than was registered in January 2008.  In January 2009, it carried 156,688 passengers on flights from Riga Inthernational Airport. The number of transit passengers passing through the airport rose by nearly six times in comparison to the same month last year, to 74,324 from just 13,149 in January 2008.