‘The recovery of the passenger traffic within Lithuanian Airports even managed to exceed the average passenger traffic at European airports during certain periods. Looking at the increasing number of flight directions and load of airplanes, it is safe to say that the aviation sector is recovering at a much faster pace than predicted and it also to be believed that we will move even closer to the number of the passenger traffic recorded during the pre-pandemic period. We are witnessing a very interesting tendency: the activity of the passengers this October is comparable to the summer seasons, when Lithuanian Airports are recording the highest number of passenger traffic. Overall, the rapid pace of the recovery of the demand and supply chain and results exceeding the average passenger traffic at European airports proves that the strategy selected for the recovery and promotion of flights, based on different scenarios, is working as expected’, - says Aurimas Stikliūnas, Head of Aviation Services at Lithuanian Airport.
The majority of the passengers - more than 287 thousand - were served at the Vilnius Airport, while Kaunas Airport managed to serve almost 77 thousand of passengers this October. This accumulates to 70 percent of the pre-pandemic passenger traffic.
As stated by A. Stikliūnas, the recovery of the Aviation sector is perfectly highlighted both by the increase in passenger traffic and the load of airplanes. At the same time last year, the average load of airplanes departing the airports was at only 36 percent, while at the same time this year, the average load of departing airplanes is at 70 percent.
This year, all three major airports saw an increase of 80 percent in the total number of flights as compared to last year. 4 thousand flights in comparison to 2.3 thousand of flights. Kaunas Airport is seeing an extremely rapid pace of recovery. The Airport managed to serve 846 flights this October, while at the same time in the year 2019, the aforementioned airport managed to serve 944 flights.
‘If the current number of passenger traffic at Lithuanian Airports is still at the level of recovery, the number of handled cargo is already exceeding the pre-pandemic level. Having regards to the fact that airplanes are the fastest and most convenient mean for transferring of goods from any place in the world, we believe that the increase in demand for e-commerce will grow steadily and increase the number of airfreights. This is also highlighted by the huge increase of air cargo’, - says A. Stikliūnas.
In October of this year, Lithuanian Airports delivered over 1767 tons of cargo by air, a 3.46 percent increase compared to the same time last year and a 13.42 percent increase compared to the year 2019.
Moreover, this October saw flights going to 79 directions, a 34 percent increase compared to the same time last year (59 directions). While in the year 2019, we saw flights going to 89 directions.
About Lithuanian Airports
Lithuanian Airport network comprises of three airports located in Vilnius, Kaunas and Palanga. In 2020, Lithuanian Airports served 1.8 million passengers and completed 30 thousand of flights.
