The aim of these guidelines is to have a clear understanding of where we are going, to focus on our goal of targeted and stable national aviation sector development despite political changes. The guidelines are to be prepared in accordance with the Ministry’s established principles to ensure convenient transport connections, eco-friendly solutions and high return.
“Lithuanian aviation sector still fails to fully use its potential in contributing to the national GDP. Thus, aviation strategy is one of the ways to achieve this through common national and business effort. Strategic aviation guidelines and an action plan to be drafted with social partners will serve as a compass for the major works to be completed over the coming decade,” Vice-minister Julius Skačkauskas said.
With the view of ensuring convenient transport connections, it is planned to evaluate Lithuania’s accessibility by air, the number of available destinations and flight frequency. This is important for passengers and for freight transport.
“Due to the pandemic, logistics chains are changing, container transport costs are sky-rocketing, while the pace of goods delivery is dropping. Thus, with airports having the infrastructure and runways accommodated for the largest types of cargo aircraft, we have a unique opportunity to show initiative and to become an international hub,” said the Vice-minister.
Another important aspect is eco-friendly aviation development, passive and CO2 neutral infrastructure, and innovations.
“We are planning to open the first hydrogen stations for heavy-duty road transport this year. I am sure this will soon happen in the aviation sector too. Technology progress may bring some radical changes to civil aviation. We must consider this possibility and start preparing,” Skačkauskas underlined.
The third aspect to consider is high return. The Vice-minister believes, the aviation sector has a high return potential in terms of its added value, attraction of investment, taxes paid to the state and technology dissemination. Therefore, we must exploit the available infrastructure, knowledge and skills, as well as sector businesses, and to find a niche to get potential benefit.
Together with its social partners, the Ministry of Transport and Communications plans to prepare the Aviation Development Guidelines 2030 by the end of this year. A working group selected for this specific purpose will consist of specialists of the Ministry and aviation and rail enterprises operating under it, representatives of aviation associations and the Air Force, as well as representatives of the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation and PE Invest Lithuania.
