The total number of passengers at Lithuanian Airports during the first six months of 2017 increased by 15%, and the number of flights increased by 11%. The increase was particularly noticeable at Palanga Airport, where the number of passengers increased by as many as 39% in comparison with the first half of 2016. The number of passengers handled at Kaunas Airport and Vilnius Airport grew by 19% and 13% respectively.

Gediminas Almantas, CEO at Lithuanian Airports, also noted the record months of May and June at the airport of the capital city.

“In May, we were happy that Vilnius Airport reached a new record with 399,800 handled passengers. However, in June this indicator additionally grew by 3.6% and reached 414,245 handled passengers. This is 10.5% more than in June 2016,” said G. Almantas.

The most significant increase in the number of flights during the first half of 2017 occurred at Kaunas Airport, where the number of flights increased by 21%. Palanga and Vilnius Airports handled 16% and 8% more flights respectively.

The CEO at Lithuanian Airports stated that several reasons caused the impressive results of June and the first half of 2017 as a whole.

“During this period, the number of destinations and flights from all airports in the country increased dramatically. This is the result of continuous work and negotiations with various airlines. Other reasons for the increase were improving economic indicators and ticket prices, which are becoming more and more advantageous for consumers,” said G. Almantas.

Within a year since the end of June 2016, Lithuanian Airports started offering a greater variety of flights in terms of geography. From Vilnius Airport, aeroplanes started flying to Bari, Grenoble, Gothenburg, Reykjavík, Nice, Leeds, Lviv, Schönefeld Airport in Berlin, Malta, and Munich, and flights to Saint Petersburg and Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport returned; Kaunas Airport offers flights to Eindhoven, Stavanger, Bergen, Ålesund, and Naples, and Palanga Airport organises flights to Glasgow and Saint Petersburg.

Moreover, flights to some destinations, which have been available for years, have now become more frequent. There are two additional flights per day from Vilnius to Warsaw, one additional daily flight from Vilnius to Frankfurt and Helsinki, and one additional weekly flight to Tel Aviv, Kiev, and Malta.

The larger number of transported passengers was also partially caused by the fact that due to the increased popularity of flights, airlines started sending larger aeroplanes to Moscow, Berlin, and Amsterdam.

G. Almantas added that major causes of the increased number of flight destinations from Lithuania are the new Ryanair base opened in November 2016 at Vilnius Airport and the Wizz Air base that was opened at Kaunas Airport.

www.vilnius-airport.lt