Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer: "Our home market for airBaltic is Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. We will consolidate and strengthen our service in our home market by offering more direct flights. We announce the first direct routes out of Vilnius to Western and Northern Europe today and will evaluate additional ones gradually. We will rescue the stranded passengers in the first days following the suspension of flights, and will offer special rescue fares for customers booked for flights later in the summer.
Furthermore, today's event in Vilnius is a strong signal that the three Baltic countries should take a common approach to their aviation, to best support travellers, new economic activity, and new jobs."
airBaltic is the first airline to rescue Air Lituanica passengers. The affected passengers are required to contact Air Lituanica staff or their travel agent for assistance. With immediate effect, airBaltic will offer all passengers holding Air Lituanica tickets for travel on and after June 6, 2015 special 59-89EUR one-way fares that can be booked via airBaltic call centre.
Air Lituanica will operate flights from/to Amsterdam, Paris and Tallinn on 22 May. Flights to Berlin, Prague, Brussels and Stockholm are cancelled on 22 May. All flights are cancelled from 23 May and onwards. Air Lituanica, seeking to reduce inconvenience for the passengers and taking into account the financial resources, agreed with AirBaltic that all passengers having Air Lituanica tickets for cancelled flights between 22 May and 29 May will be rebooked on airBaltic flights to their origin destinations, the company said in a statement.
Air Lituanica Customer Care Centre will send new tickets for the passengers travelling between 22 May and 29 May with new flight details. If new routing and flight schedules will not be acceptable, passengers will be able to reject the travel and request for refund from Air Lituanica.
Air Lituanica made immediate payment for airBaltic for the flights for the next 8 days, so all the passengers have guaranteed flights with airBaltic. Next 8 days airBaltic will accept Air Lituanica passengers on BT flights from and to Amsterdam, Brussels, Prague, Munich, Paris, Billund, Stockholm, Vilnius and Tallinn.
Next few days Air Lituanica will continue talks with airBaltic and will look for possibilities to carriage passengers travelling after 29 May.
All passengers are entitled for full refunds and guarantees by European law and Montreal convention. JSC Start Vilnius has guarantee issued for passenger compensation.
