In the past three years, passenger traffic in Lithuania had been growing at the fastest pace in the Baltic countries, Lietuvos Oro Uostai CEO said.
"This year is special for us. Even though passenger traffic in the neighboring countries has recovered, the data for the past three years shows that the Lithuanian market grew, on average, by 10 %, the Latvian market – by 0.5 % and the Estonian market – by 1.8 %," Gediminas Almantas said at a news conference on Thursday.
"Air cargo growth has also been substantial. In total, we have 28.7 %. Meanwhile, the cargo traffic in Riga is falling drastically – by 42 %. Hence our cargo market is also strong," Almantas said.
The most popular destinations last year had remained unchanged and included London, Frankfurt, Riga, Copenhagen and Dublin, he said.
"As far reachability is concerned, the success and growth resulted from new destinations and we expect the same this year," Almantas said.
New direct routes last year were opened to Odessa, St. Petersburg, Memmingen, Billund, Glasgow, Belfast, Malmo, Madrid and Eilat. Two new air carriers – Spain's Vueling and Germany's Germania, which will offer flights to Barcelona and Zurich – have announced the launch of operations in Vilnius this year.
The three Lithuanian airports accounted for 36 % of the total passenger traffic in the Baltic countries last year, up from 34 % a couple of years ago. The respective share of the airport of Riga decreased to 45 %, from 47 %, while the share of the airport of Tallinn remained unchanged, at 19 %.
